SHEFEEK Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The above appeal is preferred by the appellants who are the accused Nos. 62 and 63 in S.C.No.2/2023/NIA on the file of the Special Court for Trial of NIA Cases, Ernakulam. In the above case, they, along with the rest of the accused, stand indicted for having committed offences punishable under Sec. 120B, 34, 109, 115, 118, 119, 143, 144, 147, 148, 449, 153A, 341, 302, 201, 212 r/w.s. 149, 120B r/w.s. 302 of IPC, Sec. 3(a)(b)(d) r/w. Sec. 7 of the Religious Institutions (Prevention of Misuse) Act, 1988 and Ss. 13, 16, 18, 18A, 18B, 20, 22C, 23, 38 and 39 of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 and Sec. 25 (1) (a) of the Arms Act, 1959. By the order passed by the Special Court, the application for bail preferred by the appellants was dismissed.

(2.) The case of the appellants

(3.) Response of the respondents Sri. Sasthamangalam Ajith Kumar, the learned Senior Counsel appearing for the respondents, submitted that it is not the case of the appellants that the grounds of arrest were not communicated. The learned counsel would refer to the arrest memo produced for perusal of this Court and it was urged that it contains all details, including the date, time and place of arrest, the designation of the arresting officer etc. It is urged that Column No. 7 of the arrest memo specifically deals with the query as to whether the grounds of arrest have been explained to the accused in the vernacular, to which the accused had answered in the affirmative. He would point out that a copy of the arrest memos was served to the appellants and had been endorsed with their signature. According to the learned counsel, there is no requirement under Article 22(1) or in Sec. 50 of the Cr.P.C to communicate the grounds of arrest to the arrestee in writing. Moreover, he submitted that the mandate of Sec. 50 is that either the full particulars of the offence for which he is arrested must be communicated to an arrestee or the grounds of arrest. The learned Senior counsel would profusely rely on the principles of law laid down in Ram Kishor Arora v. Enforcement Directorate ,[(2024) 7 SCC 599] to support his submissions.