BIPIN BIHARI BEHERA Vs. STATE OF ODISHA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Two sons of petitioner are in jail custody following order made by the competent Court for their detention on and from 17/3/2024. The writ petition carrying prayer for issuance of habeas corpus was presented on 16/4/2024. Petitioner's case is, his sons were picked up on 12/3/2024 by personnel from Chhendipada P.S. They were in illegal police custody since then. They could not have committed alleged offence under Sec. 399 and 402 of Indian Penal Code, 1860 as on the intervening night of 16th and 17/3/2024. Sons of petitioner along with seven others were allegedly picked up by the police on said intervening night. We reproduce paragraph-4 from our order made, upon the writ moved on 24/4/2024.

(2.) Upon petitioner prosecuting the writ petition we had called it on 8/5/2024. Mr. Nanda, learned advocate, Additional Government Advocate appearing on behalf of State had handed up his instruction dtd. 5/5/2024, penned by I.I.C., Chhendipada P.S. We had extracted a paragraph therefrom in our order made that day, for information of petitioner. The extracted paragraph is reproduced below. 'With reference to the above cited WPCRL reference and subject, I have the honour to report that I verified the CCTV footage installed in the PS and its premises, but unfortunately it was found not functioning during the alleged date i.e. from 12/3/2024 to 17/3/2024, due to some technical issues. I have entered the fact in PS station diary about the non-functioning of CCTV installed in PS and intimated SP Angul accordingly. Further to clarify about the presence of Babun Kumar Behera and Papun Kumar Behera in the period from 12/3/2024 to 17/3/2024, I examined five local individuals namely, Chhabindra Majhi, S/o-Padmanave Majhi of village Kankurupal, Pramod Naik S/o- Late Biswanath Naik of Badaberena, Sahadev Behera, S/o- Late Kanduru Behera of Chhendipada, Tankadhar Behera S/o- Late Krushna Chandra Behera of Chhendipada, and Sibaram Majhi S/o- Late Hrusikesh Majhi of village Kankurupal, all are of PS Chhendipada, Dist. Angul, who well proved the presence of Babun Kumar Behera and Papun Kumar Behera in their village Kankurupal and in locality in different dates and times from 12/3/2024 to 17/3/2024. The said individuals also submitted their statements in the form of affidavits before the Executive Magistrate, Chhendipada, which proved the activities of Babun Kumar Behera and Papun Kumar Behera in the locality between 12/3/2024 to 17/3/2024, enclosed herewith for your kind perusal.'

(3.) Mr. Baral, learned advocate appearing on behalf of petitioner relies on judgment of the Supreme Court in Paramvir Singh Saini v. Baljit Singh delivered on 2/12/2020 by a larger Bench and reported in 2021 (I) OLR (SC) 211. Paragraph-16 is reproduced below.