The Bombay High Court has ordered the release of a man accused of raping a hearing and speech-impaired woman, after finding that the police failed to follow proper legal procedure during his arrest. At the same time, the court has permitted the investigating agency to re-arrest him, noting the seriousness of the offence.
A division bench of Justices Sarang Kotwal and Shyam Chandak passed the order on Tuesday. The bench clarified that the accused was not being granted bail, but was being released solely because his initial detention was unlawful.
After examining the case papers, the court observed that the accused had been kept in the police station for an entire day before being formally shown as arrested. He was produced before the magistrate beyond the legally mandated 24-hour period.
“The timeline clearly shows that the accused was produced before the court beyond the stipulated period of 24 hours, violating the provisions of law,” the court said. “Hence, it will have to be held that his detention was illegal and as a result, he will have to be released.”
While criticising the lapse by the investigating agency, the bench underlined that the offence was grave and the survivor should not suffer because of the police’s mistake.
“Since the offence is quite serious, it would not be proper if the survivor suffered because of the lapse on the part of the investigating agency. Therefore, to strike a balance, liberty needs to be given to the investigating agency to re-arrest the detenue if they deem fit,” the court said while directing his release from jail.
The man’s wife had approached the High Court, arguing that his arrest was illegal because he had not been produced before the appropriate court for remand within 24 hours of being taken into custody.
According to the plea, the case was registered in April this year at the Sakinaka police station in suburban Mumbai. The accused, who worked as a supervisor in a residential building, was alleged to have raped a housekeeping worker who is hearing and speech-impaired. The survivor told police that he accosted and assaulted her when she went to clean the building’s parking area.
