Court terms Chauhan's arrest illegal, orders his immediate release

SLUG: KARELIBAUG ACCIDENT

Vadodara: The city police found themselves in an embarrassing situation when the district court on Sunday called Pranshu Chauhan's arrest illegal and ordered the cops to immediately release him. Chauhan was sitting next to Rakshit Chaurasiya, whose rash driving claimed the life of a woman and injured seven others in the Karelibaug area of the city on the night of March 13. Chaurasiya was booked for culpable homicide by the Karelibaug police.

The police arrested Chauhan on Saturday after his name was added to the original FIR as a co-accused. "The police said that Chauhan, who was earlier a witness, was made a co-accused as he knew that Chaurasiya was high on drugs but still let him drive his car. How can an offence registered against Chaurasiya be applied to Chauhan, who was merely sitting beside him in the car?" questioned advocate Hitesh Gupta, who represented Chauhan.

"On Saturday, Chauhan was arrested by the Karelibaug police in the accident case immediately after he got bail under the NDPS Act from the Warasia police. But the Karelibaug cops didn't inform Chauhan or his family in writing about the reasons behind his arrest," Gupta told TOI.

"Whenever an accused in any case is arrested, his family has to be informed about it, and the arrest memo should have signatures of the person informed as well as two witnesses. But in Chauhan's case, only his signature was there on the memo. The police said that Chauhan's mother was informed on the phone, but she said that she didn't get any call," Gupta added.

"Under BNS section 47, the accused has to be informed about the grounds of arrest in writing, but that too wasn't done by the police. The court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate B K Rawal said that the arrest and the custody of the accused was illegal and against the provisions of law and also against the ratio laid down by the Supreme Court. Hence, Chauhan was directed to be released immediately," Gupta said.

Gupta also said that the section of the NDPS Act applied against Chauhan in the FIR of the drugs case was wrong. "The cops booked Chauhan under section 27 (A) of the NDPS Act, which is for drug trafficking. Chauhan is accused of consuming drugs, and there is no evidence of trafficking against him. He was granted bail by the Warasia police on Saturday in the drug case."