Bombay High Court orders independent inquiry into lawyer's arrest, handcuffing

The Bombay High Court has ordered an independent inquiry into an incident of a lawyers arrest and his handcuffing last month by the Kharghar police in Navi MumbaiThe lawyer Vimal Jha and a local lawyers body had filed two pleas in the court challenging such an arrest stating that Jha had been detained illegally and produced before the magistrates court in handcuffsA vacation bench of Justices S J Kathawala and S P Tavade passed an order on May 19 appointing principal district and sessions judge Thane R M Joshi to head an inquiry into the incidentAlso Read Thane Four booked for organising bullock cart race say officialsThe courts order was made available on its website on FridayThe pleas filed by Jha and the organisation Lawyers for Just Society claimed that the formers arrest was illegal According to the petitioners the Kharghar police had arrested Jha on the charges of kidnapping and extortion based on a complaint lodged by one of his clientsThe police had flouted norms of the Criminal Procedure Code CrPC and Supreme Court orders on Jhas arrest producing him before a magistrate handcuffing etc the petitioners allegedThe petitioners counsel Subhash Jha and Prashant Pandey claimed that the lawyer was arrested on April 3 but produced before a magistrate only on April 5 and was handcuffed at the timeThe CrPC mandates that one is produced before a magistrate within 24 hours of his or her arrest while the Supreme Court mandates that no accused must be handcuffed unless a magistrates order is obtained for the sameDuring the last hearing on May 17 the states counsel chief public prosecutor CPP Deepak Thakare had denied the allegations made by the petitionersThakare had told the bench that Jha was arrested on April 4 and was produced before the magistrate court on April 5He later said that Jha was called to the police station on April 3 but an FIR was registered around 4 am on April 5 and he was arrested only after thatWhen the bench asked Thakare for the CCTV footage from the concerned police station to confirm the same he said the police station did not have CCTV cameras installed at the time of Jhas arrestCCTVs had been installed in the police station only on May 1 this year the CPP saidThe court had taken a strong exception to Thakares submissionsSubsequently the Kharghar police filed an affidavit in the High Court offering an unconditional apology to the court for any inadvertent errors admitting that Jha had been handcuffed and said a police inquiry would be initiated into the alleged incidentThe court however said the incident warranted an independent inquiry and appointed Judge Joshi to head the sameIt also directed the Kharghar police and the Maharashtra state CID to offer requisite attention to Judge Joshi in the inquiryThe inquiry will look into among other things if Jha was detained illegally whether the police were justified in handcuffing him and when the CCTVs were installed at the concerned police station it saidThe court directed Judge Joshi to complete the inquiry by June 15 the next date of hearingThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever