Badagada/Bhubaneswar: The Orissa High Court has issued notices to police officers of Badagada police station here over the alleged violation of mandatory procedural safeguards under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) in the arrest of a 19-year-old youth, directing the State to produce the arrest memo, checklist and other relevant records for judicial scrutiny.
The matter came before Justice RK Pattanaik on a petition filed by the father of the youth, seeking initiation of contempt proceedings against Trupti Ranjan Nayak, Inspector-in-Charge of Badagada police station, and another police officer for allegedly arresting his son without complying with Section 35(3) of the BNSS.
Section 35(3) requires a police officer, in cases where arrest is not necessary, to issue a written notice directing the person to appear before the police instead of resorting to immediate arrest.
The youth had been arrested by Badagada police on allegations of circulating private photographs of a young woman without her knowledge.
However, the Khurda Sessions Court granted him bail, observing that the investigation had not yielded material establishing that he had circulated the photographs.
The youth subsequently approached the High Court seeking quashing of the FIR registered at Badagada police station.
During the proceedings, counsels for both sides submitted that the dispute had been amicably settled.
Taking note of the settlement, the High Court observed that continuation of the criminal proceedings would be futile and would amount to an abuse of the process of law.
The FIR was accordingly quashed.
The issue of the alleged illegality in the arrest, however, subsequently came before the High Court through the Criminal Miscellaneous Petition filed by the youth’s father.
Justice Pattanaik posted the matter for further hearing and issued notices to the police officers concerned on the allegation.
