HC dismisses Millis plea against arrest

CUTTACK: In a setback to Subhashree Panda alias Milli, the wife of Maoist leader Sabyasachi Panda, the Orissa High Court on Thursday rejected her petition challenging her arrest on the night of January 15, 2010 without requisite permission of the Judicial Magistrate First Class and illegal detention by the police beyond the stipulated 24 hours.The division bench comprising Justices L Mohapatra and BK Patel after examining records of the case concluded that the petition was devoid of merit and dismissed it.“Having held that the petitioner was arrested at 3 pm on January 15, 2010 in Bhubaneswar and produced before the JMFC Banpur at 7 pm the next day, we find no reason to hold such arrest and detention as illegal and grant compensation claimed by her,” the bench ruled.The petitioner alleged that she was arrested at around three in the night of January 14/15, 2010 without prior permission from the magistrate, which not only contravened the provisions of the CrPC but also violated the fundamental right of the petitioner under the guidelines issued by the Supreme Court. Further, after her arrest, she was produced before the magistrate on January 16 at 7 pm long after the expiry of the stipulated 24 hours.The Crime Branch in a counter affidavit stated that the time, 3 am mentioned as arrest had erroneously crept in instead of 3 pm.  The special operation team had arrived at her rented house in the night and conducted search and seizure operations in the presence of the landlord. She was questioned between 8.15 am and 2.45 and arrested at the spot at around 3 pm.Thereafter she was taken to the SOG camp and handed over to the IIC of Balugaon police station. She was produced before the JMFC Banpur at around 7 pm on January 16 along with an FIR, seizure lists and statement of witnesses recorded under Section 161 of CrPC. The bench on examining the case diary concluded that the time of arrest, 3 am prima facie appeared to be an error and not supported by entries made in it.As far as violation of the 24 hours time limit was concerned, the court took into account the time taken to travel from Bhubaneswar to Banpur and rejected the contention.