HC to decide if police were right in arresting suspected Naxalites

The Bombay High Court has reserved the order on a petition filed by Susan Abraham, wife of alleged Naxalite Vernon Gonsalves, reports Urvi Mahajani.

The Bombay High Court has reserved the order on a petition filed by Susan Abraham, wife of alleged Naxalite Vernon Gonsalves.

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She had challenged his arrest by the Mumbai Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) and subsequent arrests in 10 other criminal offences in Gondia and Gadchiroli.

Abraham had challenged the police’s way of taking custody of Gonsalves and Shreedhar Shrinivasan — the police had acquired warrants under Section 267 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) from different courts — alleging that it violates their fundamental rights.

The high court will decide on whether the police was right in acquiring their custody under Section 267, which is actually sought by a magistrate for producing an accused for a case registered in his jurisdiction.

Abraham counsels, Anand Grover and Maharukh Adenwalla, argued that the transfer orders [for producing the duo] were being passed under Section 267, which was not permissible as the Section comes into force only after a chargesheet is filed.

She also claimed that the transfer orders were being passed by lower courts ex-parte and without giving any notice to the accused or their family.