Police Officials send for 4 Weeks of Imprisonment and fined for violation of Arnesh Kumar v. State of Bihar

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Jakka Vinod Kumar Reddy And … vs The State Of Telangana And Another, HC of Telangana As on 6 June, 2022

This Contempt Case is filed by the petitioners-A1 and A2 in CrimeNo.488 of 2020 on the file of PS Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad, under Sections 10 to 12 of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 to take action against the contemnors for their wilful and deliberate disobedience of the judgment passed by the Hon’ble Apex Court in Arnesh Kumar v. State of Bihar (2014 (8) SCC 273) for not issuing any notice to the petitioners before issuing Look Out Circular (LOC) against A1 and Non Bailable Warrants (NBWs) against A1 and A2 and to impose appropriate sentence of imprisonment and fine in accordance with law

17. As issuance of LOC or NBWs against the petitioners without issuing any notice to them, without giving them an opportunity to prove their bonafides and without enquiring them, was in violation of the guidelines issued by the Hon’ble Apex Court, I hold that the respondents had wilfully disobeyed the judgment of the Hon’ble Apex Court and therefore, they are liable to be punished for contempt of court.

18. As the 4th respondent is the Investigating Officer in Crime No.488 of 2020 and he deliberately and wilfully concealed the representation of the petitioners and not served notice on them and wrongly appraised the Magistrate that the petitioners were absconding and wrongly got the NBWs issued against them, he is liable to be punished. As the 3rd respondent was the Officer incharge of the Police Station under whose guidance the investigation was conducted by the 4th respondent and the 2nd respondent was the forwarding authority of the Look Out Circular and the 1st respondent was the authority who issued the Look Out Circular against the petitioners without confirming the fact whether notice under Section 41-A Cr.P.C. was served upon the petitioners in terms of the judgment in Arnesh Kumar’s case (1 supra) and the said authorities deliberately ignored the e-mails, whatsapp messages sent to them by the 1st petitioner, all the respondents are sentenced to imprisonment for a period of four (4) weeks and shall also pay a fine of Rs.2,000/- each within a period of four (4) weeks. The sentence of imprisonment imposed on the respondents is suspended for a period of six (6) weeks and the petitioners are directed to pay subsistence allowance @ Rs.200/- per day to each contemnor within four (4) weeks.

19. The Commissioner of Police, Hyderabad City and the State of Telangana, represented by its Principal Secretary, Home Department shall initiate disciplinary action against the respondents for violation of guidelines issued by the Hon’ble Apex Court in Arnesh Kumar v. State of Bihar.

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