Mitali Palnitkar
Published On: January 04, 2022 at 19:38 IST
A Delhi police officer, Kuldeep was sentenced to Jail for one day by the Delhi High Court for committing Contempt of Court. The police officer had arrested a person in breach of the Apex Court’s directions.
The police officer (Sub-inspector) was fined with Rs 2,000 by the High Court. He was also directed to pay a nominal amount of Rs 15,000 to the Petitioner within four weeks, who had been imprisoned for 11 days.
The Court imprisoned the police officer just for one day keeping in mind that he had served the Delhi Police for seven years and that he could have a long career ahead.
The apology made by the police officer during the Contempt Proceedings was refused by Justice Najmi Waziri by stating, “Personal liberty can be curtailed only by a procedure established by law.”
In order to give sufficient opportunity to the officer to challenge the decision, Justice Waziri had stated that the Order would be kept in abeyance for 2 months from its receipt.
The High court noted that the police officer had arrested the Petitioner, Rakesh Kumar of allegedly committing Criminal breach of trust and entailed a maximum sentence of 3 years to him. This was done without issuing a notice of appearance under Section 41 A of Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) which is mandatory. The mandatory issuance of notice of appearance was directed by the Supreme Court in the Arnesh Kumar Case.
Justice Waziri stated, “The highhandedness of the police officer in specific breach of Supreme Court’s directions was evident and the arrest of the Petitioner was not warranted in the manner in which it was done.”
The Court also observed that the Petitioner and his family were humiliated by the Arrest and any sort of explanation to the neighbours would not be enough to forget the humiliation suffered. Though the Petitioner was acquitted, it was a loss to his reputation and to his personal liberty.