Allahabad High Court slams UP Police over man’s ‘31-hour illegal custody’, releases him

The Allahabad High Court has released a man who was held in police custody for over 31 hours without proper documentation and awarded him Rs 30,000 in compensation. The court directed an inquiry into the officers responsible for the illegal detention. The man had been taken into custody by the Uttar Pradesh Police on September 14, but no arrest was recorded in the official records until September 16, after a plea was filed at the high court.

The court emphasized that police must ensure the custody time of every citizen is recorded in the general diary from the moment of arrest. The court found that the omission of the custody time was not a mere mistake but a deliberate act to avoid allegations of illegal detention, as the formal arrest was made only after learning about the pending plea.

Justices Atul Sreedharan and Achal Sachdev ruled that the police cannot legitimize an arrest that followed unlawful detention. The man claimed his mother visited the police station on September 15, and a plea was filed at the high court on that day. The police formally recorded his arrest on September 16, and he was medically examined and produced before a magistrate who sent him to judicial custody on the same day.

The high court noted that the man was not aware of his right to have a lawyer present during the investigation while he was in illegal custody, and that the arrest and subsequent detention were unlawful. The court applied the doctrine of "fruit of the poisonous tree," stating that evidence obtained unlawfully, such as the arrest following unlawful detention, cannot be used in subsequent proceedings.