Title: Emmanuel Michael And Union of India
Case No: WP 17961/2021
Date of Order: 28-07-2023
CORAM: HON’BLE JUSTICE M NAGAPRASANNA
INTRODUCTION
The Karnataka High Court has held that once an accused has spent a substantial period in judicial custody, they cannot be remanded to police custody again for the same case.
FACTS OF THE CASE
According to the prosecution, the petitioner was arrested when the Narcotic Control Bureau seized 610 grams of MDMA from the foreign Post Office in Chamarajpet, Bengaluru, in December 2020. After recording his statement, the petitioner was placed in police custody for five days and later remanded to judicial custody. During the investigation, accused no. 3 was also arrested, claiming to be a regular drug consumer supplied by the petitioner on more than 100 occasions. As a result, the NCB filed another application in May 2021, requesting police custody of the petitioner for three more days, which was granted. During this period, the police obtained statements from the petitioner about his involvement with accused no. 3 and the events’ chain. The petitioner has challenged the legality of this custody and the recorded statements, seeking their exclusion in their entirety.
COURT ANALYSIS
The Karnataka High Court, with a Single judge bench of Justice M Nagaprasanna, partly allowed the petition filed by Emmanuel Michael. It declared the second stint of police custody, which occurred six months after the initial arrest and after the accused had been in judicial custody for a substantial period, as illegal. The court clarified that seeking police custody repeatedly after the accused has been remanded to judicial custody for a long time is not permissible. However, the court did not completely exclude the statements recorded during the illegal custody. The concerned court would be at liberty to assess the veracity of these statements and regulate the procedure in accordance with the law. The bench said, “The second stint of Police custody, in the same case, of the petitioner between 21-05-2021 and 23-05-2021 is illegal, and the statements recorded during the said period would become statements recorded during the course of illegal custody.”
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Written by- Shreya Sharma
