Allahabad High Court sentences police officer to 14 days imprisonment for breaching Arnesh Kumar guidelines on arrest

The Allahabad High Court last sentenced a police officer to imprisonment for 14 days after it found the officer guilty of breaching the Supreme Court's guidelines laid down in the judgment of Arnesh Kumar v State of Bihar while arresting a person [In re v Chandan Kumar]..A division bench of Justices Suneet Kumar and Syed Waiz Mian noted that it could not take a sympathetic view of the officer's conduct as it would not sub-serve public interest and the administration of justice."In order to secure public respect and confidence in the judicial process, the Court is constrained in awarding punishment to the contemnor," the bench recorded..In the case at hand, the Court noted that the police officer, in order to to bypass the top court's mandate, deliberately recorded in the general diary that the accused declined to accept the terms and conditions of a notice under Section 41A of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC)..It was also noted that the officer attempted to give a communal colour by taking advantage of the fact that accused belonged to Muslim community and stated that there was an apprehension of communal riots."No such apprehension did exist as admittedly, the FIR was not lodged at the police station until intervention by the higher authorities. There is no entry in the GD that there was any such apprehension of communal flare up in the event of the accused not being arrested," the bench said. .The division bench also said that the the general diary reflected no entry regarding the apprehension of a communal flare up if the accused was not arrested."The misleading entry in the GD was made willfully and deliberately with sole purpose to bypass the mandate in Arnesh Kumar (supra), in order to arrest the accused.".In his affidavit tendering an unconditional apology, the officer urged for a sympathetic view on the quantum of punishment reasoning that he was a young officer and his wife was expecting a child.Further, he said that he was the sole bread earner of his family and that a punishment would adversely affect his career..The bench, however, refused to accept the apology on the ground that it was a more of an act of last resort and not sincere. "Further, held 'apology' should be unquestionable in sincerity and tempered with sense of genuine remorse and repentance, and not a calculated strategy to avoid punishment", the court explained..With this, the officer was sentenced to undergo simple imprisonment for 14 days and a fine of ₹1,000 was imposed.The sentence was, however, kept in abeyance for 60 days to enable the contemnor to appeal against it. .The petitioner was represented by Advocate Sudhir Mehrotra while the respondent was represented by Advocates RV Pandey, Abhishek Mishra and Ashutosh Kumar Pandey..[Read Order]