CDR case: Bombay HC orders release of lawyer Rizwan Siddiqui  

Siddiqui was arrested by Thane Police on March 16 and was remanded in police custody till March 23.

Siddiqui’s wife Tasneem had moved the high court and filed a petition, stating that her husband had been wrongfully arrested without a notice, which is an absolute violation of the provisions under Criminal Procedure Code. The petition further stated that her husband was being subjected to wrongful and illegal detention.

READ |  Rizwan Siddiqui sent to police custody

The petition sought issuance of Writ of Habeas Corpus to produce Rizwan who is in detention. On Tuesday, Siddiqui’s lawyer Rizwan Merchant termed the detention of his client as “illegal” on the ground that Section 41-A (notice of appearance before police officer) of Code of Criminal Procedure was not followed.

However, on Tuesday, assistant public prosecutor JP Yagnik informed the court that when they sought to serve this notice on Siddiquee, he refused.  A division bench of justice SC Dharmadhikari and justice Prakash D Naik, passed an order on Wednesday to release lawyer Rizwan Siddiqui before 5pm.

On Rizwan’s role, investigation officer Nitin Thakre told The Indian Express, “Our probe revealed that Rizwan had interacted with and urged an arrested accused detective, Prashant Palekar, to get the CDR. This is a direct invasion of privacy and therefore we arrested him.”