Madras High Court calls Thanjavur Inspector’s arrest illegal, orders unconditional release

The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Friday ordered the release of Sugumaran, a suspended Inspector of the District Crime Branch in Thanjavur.

Sugumaran was arrested recently by the CB-CID. The prosecution allegation is that he extorted money in a dispute between two partners of a private hospital in Thanjavur, allegedly under the pretext of bringing about a settlement between them.

The court was hearing a habeas corpus petition filed by Sugumaran’s wife, M. Innisai. A Division Bench of Justices G.R. Swaminathan and P. Murugan examined whether the arrest and subsequent remand were lawful under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, and the Constitution.

The Bench said the State had been asked to satisfy the court that proper reasons were recorded for justifying the arrest when Sugumaran had duly complied with a notice issued under Section 35(3) of the BNSS. “We place on record that no material was placed before us to show that the requirement set out in Section 35(5) was complied with. This alone is more than sufficient to declare the arrest and remand of Sugumaran illegal,” the court said.

The court noted that the prosecution did not claim the grounds of arrest had been served, and that the trial magistrate had recorded no such finding. Instead, the magistrate had said that the fact the arrestee was a police officer and that his spouse was a lawyer were circumstances that justified dispensing with the constitutional requirement. The court reminded the officer that Articles 21 and 22 of the Constitution were sacrosanct and that certain fundamental rights were non-negotiable.

The court, however, clarified that it was not concerned with the merits of the matter. It said it would therefore not be justified in holding that the First Information Report registered by the CB-CID had to be quashed. That was an independent battle Sugumaran might have to wage. The only point for consideration before the court was whether his fundamental rights were breached in the matter of his arrest and remand. Sugumaran was a police officer accused of having played “katta panchayat”, but even such a person deserved due process, the court said.

Allowing the petition, the court declared that Sugumaran’s arrest, detention and subsequent remand were illegal and directed that he be released forthwith. “We are not granting bail. On the other hand, we are directing his unconditional release,” the court said.

The order is confined to the legality of the arrest and remand. The criminal case registered by the CB-CID remains pending, and the court’s ruling does not decide the allegations on merit or exonerate the officer.