Key Points
- The Bombay High Court told a Maharashtra Police officer to pay Rs 2 lakh to a man for illegal arrest.
- A police constable was ordered to pay Rs 50,000 to his brother-in-law, who was wrongfully detained.
- The arrest was made with charges that were either unconstitutional or didn’t apply.
- The case began from a marital dispute involving accusations of defamation and cruelty.
Looma News
The Bombay High Court has ordered a Maharashtra Police officer to pay Rs 2 lakh to a man who was wrongfully arrested. The court also directed another police constable, the complainant in the case, to pay Rs 50,000 to his brother-in-law, who had been illegally detained. The court found that the arrest was made under charges that were either unconstitutional or did not fit the situation.
The case started in Hingoli in June when a defamation case was filed under Sections 66-A and 66-B of the Information Technology Act, with charges related to sending offensive material and holding a stolen computer. However, the court pointed out that Section 66-A had already been ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, and the charge related to the stolen computer was irrelevant.
The man, who was in the middle of a divorce from his wife, was arrested on August 6, 2024, after midnight, even though the charges didn’t apply. He was brought before a Magistrate and granted bail the same day. The court criticized the investigating officer for not properly reviewing the legal sections before making the arrest. The officer didn’t give a valid reason for the arrest, which is required when the charges carry less than seven years of imprisonment.
The arrest came after a marital dispute between the man and his wife, who had accused him of marital cruelty. She claimed he had sent a message to a relative saying she had made intimate videos of their relationship, which her brother later shared. The man’s estranged brother-in-law, a police constable in Hingoli, then filed the defamation case, leading to the wrongful arrest.
