Observing that “arrest brings humiliation, curtails freedom and casts scars forever,” the Bombay High Court declared the 20-day custody of a Karnataka-based man in a cheating case by the Mumbai Police as “illegal and without lawful authority” and directed the Maharashtra government to pay him Rs 1 lakh as compensation. A bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Sandesh D Patil on September 29 passed a verdict on a plea by Vasantha Perampally Nayak belonging to Udupi district in Karnataka, seeking a declaration that his arrest on October 23, 2024, was illegal. Senior advocate Aabad Ponda, along with advocates Dhruti Chheda and Anukul Seth for the petitioner, also sought a departmental inquiry against two officers from Bandra Police station and compensation from the state towards “deprivation of petitioner’s liberty and for the humiliation and stigma faced by him.” As per the petitioner, he and the complainant/informant are maternal cousins and were engaged in the perfume oils business in 1999 and had established a partnership firm. There was a dispute in the partnership firm, and he had retired through a deed of reconstitution of partnership in August 2013, and the complainant, along with another person, continued in the partnership business. The petitioner claimed that the police had “oblique motives” while invoking offence punishable under Section 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) in the FIR along with offences under sections 420 (cheating), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 465 (forgery), 477A (fabrication of accounts) and 34 (common intention) of the IPC. The high court noted that Inspector Pradeep Kerkar of Bandra Police station had initially sought permission from the zonal deputy commissioner of police to register offences except section 409, however, the officers invoked section 409 of IPC, which was a non-bailable section providing punishment up to life imprisonment, against Nayak while registering FIR without informing the superior officers. The court noted that the police arrested the petitioner “without there being any direction to register an FIR under Section 409.” Justice Patil observed, “We find that there has been gross abuse of law, resulting in the petitioner’s arrest and his custody of 20 days in jail. We, as Constitutional Courts cannot be oblivious to the same. Arrest of an individual is a serious matter. Arrest brings humiliation, curtails freedom and casts scars forever. The Apex Court has time and again frowned on unnecessary arrests even in non-bailable offences.” The high court found it a “fit case for awarding compensation to the petitioner by the State, on account of the petitioner’s illegal arrest” and directed the government to pay him Rs 1 lakh within six weeks. Moreover, the Mumbai police commissioner was directed to appoint an officer not below the rank of deputy commissioner of police to conduct a departmental inquiry with respect to the petitioner’s arrest and pass a decision within eight weeks after hearing the petitioner. The compensation is required to be recovered from the salary of the responsible person/s after a full-fledged inquiry. The court will hear the compliance with its order on December 4.
