The Allahabad HC sentenced police officer for not following the mandate of Arnesh Kumar vs the state of Bihar passed by the Supreme Court. The court held the officer guilty of contempt for intentionally not following the directions.
In Arnesh Kumar vs the State of Bihar, the supreme court said that the person should not be arrested unless in certain circumstances for the offence punishable with imprisonment of less than 7 years. The police officer must send the notice to the accused for appearing under section 41A of Crpc in the abovementioned offence. If the arrest is made in exceptional circumstances then the officer should record the reason behind the arrest.
In the present case, the contemnor served the notice to the accused under section 41A of Crpc still deliberately arrested the accused and wrote in their diary the reason that the accused denied to accept the conditions mentioned in the notice served.
He tried to give a communal impression of the situation and said that the accused is Muslim if he is not arrested then there is a chance of communal riots.
The court said that no such apprehension was founded, and the FIR even registered even after the intervention of higher authorities only. There is no entry regarding the anticipation of communal riots is founded in the diary.
The arrest was made by giving false reasoning by the police officer and bypassing the directions of the Supreme court passed in Arnesh Kumar vs the State of Bihar.