In what can at best be described as bizarre, a man who had completed a three-year prison sentence in an Arms Act case 11 years ago was picked up by the Chandigarh police on Wednesday, allegedly assaulted before his 13-year-old daughter, produced in court... only to be released again.
He is now planning to file a defamation case against the police. Narrating the sequence of events, Anil Chauhan alias Tota, a resident of Sector 63, said: “In 2003, an FIR was registered under section 307 (murder) and Arms Act against me. I was arrested on May 24, 2004, and on May 13, 2008, I was acquitted of murder charges but convicted under the Arms Act. The court of additional district and sessions judge RS Atri awarded me three years in prison.”
Chauhan said that as he had spent four years in prison from 2004 to 2008 and that too without bail the court had deemed the sentence as completed.
However, “At 11:30am on Wednesday, three police vehicles arrived and men in civil clothes entered my house. They took me in custody at gunpoint, started brutally hitting me in front of my 13-year-old daughter, abusing me when I asked why they were hitting me,” he alleged.
Though he pleaded that he be allowed to live his life peacefully as he had completed his sentence, the police didn’t listen and said they were under pressure from courts. On being questioned by Chauhan’s wife they replied that he was being arrested for not completing his sentence in an FIR dated 2003, he said. First taken to the chief judicial magistrate’s court and later to the duty magistrate’s court as the former was on leave, Chauhan told the judge about the police’s mistake even though the court was told by the police that he had been rearrested as he had not completed his sentence.
{{/usCountry}}Though he pleaded that he be allowed to live his life peacefully as he had completed his sentence, the police didn’t listen and said they were under pressure from courts. On being questioned by Chauhan’s wife they replied that he was being arrested for not completing his sentence in an FIR dated 2003, he said. First taken to the chief judicial magistrate’s court and later to the duty magistrate’s court as the former was on leave, Chauhan told the judge about the police’s mistake even though the court was told by the police that he had been rearrested as he had not completed his sentence.
{{/usCountry}}Much to his relief, on checking his records, the judge told Chauhan, “aap jaa sakte ho (you can leave).”
Chauhan’s lawyer Sandeep Katoch said, “During the resumed hearing of case on Saturday, judicial file was brought before the court, whereby it came on record that he was in custody for four years. It was also verified from jail authorities where it was cleared that he was wrongly arrested by the police. The court let him go.”
Chauhan now plans to file a defamation case against the police for “wrongly arresting him without verifying judicial records. “They illegally detained me in front of my daughter, who is still in trauma. My neighbours saw the way police treated me. They are not letting me live my life,” he said.