Police from other states can't pick up Delhi residents without informing local police: Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court observed on Tuesday that police from other States cannot be allowed to pick up residents of Delhi without informing the Delhi Police [Azad Singh Gulia v Govt of NCT of Delhi and Ors]..A Bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Anup Jairam Bhambhani observed that such incidents have increased recently.“We cannot permit Telangana Police to whisk away people of Delhi without informing the Delhi Police… Our problem is that episodes like these seem to be increasing now. What are the safeguards here? To say that law requires any other police force to make entries… But what if they don’t do it? What are the safeguards?” the Court asked Standing Counsel (Criminal) for the Delhi Police, Sanjay Lao..The Court was hearing a Habeas Corpus petition filed by a mother alleging that her son was picked up from Dwarka by the Telangana Police in October last year.The petition said that the man was not produced before the concerned magistrate within the mandated period of 24 hours, and was instead taken to Telangana and produced before a court in the State, after 72 hours. It was argued that though the man was granted bail in November 2021, there was no information about his whereabouts since. .Lao informed the Court that as per information available with him, the man lived in a different police's jurisdiction and was picked up from some other area. He added that the petitioner should have approached the Telangana High Court with the petition..The Bench, however, said that it was concerned about the larger issue, and when the entire procedure is side-tracked, the Delhi Police cannot feign ignorance.“If a petition comes and says this, they (Delhi Police) have to take the stand on following things: Were they informed? If they were not, then can they ask Telangana Police to confirm or deny? And if Telangana Police says yes, then what is the recourse for the Delhi Police and the person concerned? He can’t be unaccounted for,” Justice Bhambhani said..The Court, therefore, proceeded to direct the Delhi Police to file a status report in the matter detailing whether it was informed about the arrest. If it was not so informed, then the Delhi Police has to tell the Court whether the procedure under law is to request a report from the Telangana Police on these allegations. The police has been given two weeks to file the report. The case will be heard again on February 9.