Arrest should be last option for police, says Allahabad high court

PRAYAGRAJ: The Allahabad high court has held that arrest should be the last option for police and should be restricted to those exceptional cases where arresting the accused is imperative or his custodial interrogation is required. “Irrational and indiscriminate arrests are a gross violation of human rights,” the court added.
While granting anticipatory bail to a police constable, Jugendra Singh, Justice Siddhartha quoted the case of Joginder Kumar vs State of Uttar Pradesh (AIR 1994 SC1349), where the Supreme Court has referred to the third report of National Police Commission (NCP), in which it is mentioned that arrests by the police in India is one of the chief source of corruption in the police.
The report suggested that, by and large, nearly 60% of the arrests were either unnecessary or unjustified and that such unjustified police action accounted for 43.2% of expenditure of the jails.
“Personal liberty is a very precious fundamental right and should be curtailed only when it becomes imperative. According to the peculiar facts and circumstances of the case, the arrest of an accused should be made,” the apex court had added in the case of Joginder Kumar.
In the present case, there was an allegation against the applicant that he was taking money from passing trucks. His counsel submitted that there was no forensic report nor recovery has been made from the applicant and the investigation was still underway. The applicant has definite apprehension that he may be arrested by the police any time.
However, the state counsel opposed the request for the anticipatory bail of the applicant, contending that in view of the seriousness of the allegations made against the applicant, he is not entitled to grant anticipatory bail.
“The apprehension of the applicant is not founded on any material on record. Only on the basis of imaginary fear, anticipatory bail cannot be granted,” the state counsel added. However, the court directed that the applicant is entitled to be released on anticipatory bail for limited period in this case considering the exceptions considered by the Hon’ble Supreme Court in the case of Sushila Aggarwal vs. State (NCT of Delhi)- 2020 SCC Online SC 98.