Now Reading: Chhattisgarh High Court Rejects ‘Voluntary’ Police Custody
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Chhattisgarh High Court Rejects ‘Voluntary’ Police Custody
The Chhattisgarh High Court has ruled that police cannot keep a person in custody under the guise of voluntary cooperation to avoid Article 22 safeguards. The court said constitutional protection begins when…
The Story in Brief
The Chhattisgarh High Court has ruled that police cannot keep a person in custody under the guise of voluntary cooperation to avoid Article 22 safeguards. The court said constitutional protection begins when police substantially curtail a person’s liberty, not when officers prepare a formal arrest memo.
The ruling concerned a cyber fraud case in which the petitioner was allegedly taken from Rohtak on 28 June 2026, transported through Delhi to Chhattisgarh and produced before a magistrate on 30 June. The court found that he remained under police control throughout. It held that an endorsement on a Section 35(3) BNSS notice did not prove genuine consent, declared the detention illegal, quashed the remand orders and ordered his release.
The Indian Opinion
The lazy narrative that procedural safeguards protect only the guilty misses the point. Nor should every police error be treated as proof of bad faith. The court’s test is practical: was the person truly free to refuse, travel independently or leave? A signed notice cannot answer that if police already control his movement. Investigators must now document liberty at each stage, while courts must scrutinise custody records rather than rely on arrest timings.
Source: livelaw.in
This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
