Delhi top cop mandates filling forms for arrests

As per legal requirements, IOs fill out arrest memos after every arrest. This includes case details, such as FIR number, sections applied, police station, district, state and date of FIR

Delhi Police commissioner Sanjay Arora has directed all investigating officers (IOs) to mandatorily include “grounds of arrest” in their arrest memorandums and communicate the same in writing to those being arrested to ensure that they can defend themselves when police seek custody remand in court and also when they want to seek bail, officials aware of the development said.

The circular was issued last month against a Supreme Court observation in a criminal appeal last year, wherein it stated the arrest memo did not contain the “grounds of arrest”. (Representative photo)

A police officer, not wishing to be identified, said IOs were filling up arrest memos but usually furnished the reason for arrest in court while seeking police custody remand or opposing bail plea.

“Let alone the ‘grounds of arrest’, even the ‘reason for the arrest’ was not being communicated to the arrested person in writing by IOs, as we all follow the orthodox practices,” the officer said.

As per legal requirements, IOs fill out arrest memos after every arrest. This includes case details, such as FIR number, sections applied, police station, district, state and date of FIR. There are various columns for the arrested too, such as filling in their name, parentage, address, place and timing of the arrest, phone number, address and name of person to be informed about it and name and rank of arresting officer.

The circular was issued last month against a Supreme Court observation in a criminal appeal last year, wherein it stated the arrest memo did not contain the “grounds of arrest”. The top court observed that “Column No. 9” of the arrest memo simply sets out “reason of arrest” — which is formal in nature and can be generally attributed to any person arrested on accusation of an offence whereas the “grounds of arrest” would be personal in nature and specific to the person arrested. The court further observed that the “grounds of arrest” would be required to contain all details available with the IOs that necessitated the arrest of the accused.

In the circular, a copy of which was accessed by HT, IOs were told that “the arresting officer, at the time of effecting the arrest of any person must ensure that the ‘grounds of arrest’ are communicated in writing to the person independent of the ‘reason of arrest’, as soon as practicably feasible, after such arrest, but well before producing the arrested person before the concerned court.”

Along with the circular, an amended “arrest memo” that has separate columns (9, 10 and 11) for “reason of arrest”, “grounds of arrest” and “whether grounds of arrest have been conveyed to the accused or not” was also issued by the police chief. The circular also included templates of educative “grounds of arrest” and “reason of arrest” under different crimes for guidance of arresting officers.

The circular mentioned probable grounds of arrests as direct evidence, such as a statement or dying declaration or statement of an eyewitness, accused named in the FIR with reasonable suspicion warranting their custodial interrogation, confession of accused, the motive of personal enmity, disclosure statement by co-accused, and physical evidence such as fingerprints, DNA matching, call detail record (CDR) analysis, CCTV footage, recovery of incriminating physical or electronic evidence, forensic analysis linking the accused with the scene or crime, victims or to the alleged offence, and recoveries of items related to the crimes, among others.

As per the circular, the probable “reason of arrest” includes preventing suspects from committing a further offence, proper investigation of the offence, preventing the person from causing evidence to disappear or tampering with evidence, preventing the person from making any inducement, and threat or promise to any person acquainted with the facts of the case to dissuade him or her from disclosing such facts to the court or the police officer.

A person can be arrested if his presence in the court, wherever required, cannot be ensured, the person does not have permanent residence in Delhi, he or she is a previous convict, or previously jumped bail, parole, furlough, and sentence. A suspect may also be arrested under circumstances, such as recovering case property, arrest of co-accused, and requirement for collecting various samples, such as voice, blood, DNA, fingerprint, and signature for forensic examination, said another police officer, quoting the circular.