"He Appears To Be Under Illegal Detention Of UP Govt Authorities": Allahabad High Court Seeks Production Of 82 Year Old Missing Man
In what appears to be the last opportunity, the Allahabad High Court has directed the Uttar Pradesh Government to produce the 82-year-old man who went missing from TB Sapru Hospital in Prayagraj during COVID's second wave, around 11 months ago, before the Court on May 6.The Bench of Justice Surya Prakash Kesarwani and Justice Jayant Banerji also made a prima facie remark that the missing man...
In what appears to be the last opportunity, the Allahabad High Court has directed the Uttar Pradesh Government to produce the 82-year-old man who went missing from TB Sapru Hospital in Prayagraj during COVID's second wave, around 11 months ago, before the Court on May 6.
The Bench of Justice Surya Prakash Kesarwani and Justice Jayant Banerji also made a prima facie remark that the missing man was under illegal detention of the respondents.
"There is a failure on the part of the respondents to produce the corpus who was under their custody and thus, prima facie, the corpus appears to be under illegal 7 detention of the respondents," the bench stressed.
The background of the case
Essentially, the instant Habeas Corpus Writ Petition was filed before the High Court in May last year seeking the release of an 82-year-old man from the custody of TB Sapru Hospital in Prayagraj, where he was admitted for treatment of Covid-19 but purportedly went missing.
The petition had been filed by one Raul Yadav through Advocates Anuj Saxena and Prakash Sharma, seeking the release of his father Ram Lal Yadav who has allegedly been missing from the said Hospital since May 8, 2021.
It was the Petitioner's case that his father was admitted to TB Sapru Hospital on May 4 after testing for Covid-19. On May 6, the Petitioner himself tested positive and was recommended home isolation. The next day, he was informed by the Hospital authorities that his father is being shifted to Trauma Center due to a sharp decline in Oxygen levels, and to his utter shock, on May 8, he was informed by the Hospital authorities that his father is missing.
Court's order of April 25
Now, on April 25, the Court, after taking into account its previous orders issued in this case, said that it was left with no option except to direct all the respondents to produce the corpus, Ram Lal Yadav, before the Court on the next date fixed, failing which, the Court warned, the respondents shall remain personally present before this Court.
The case was thereafter posted for further hearing on May 6, 2022 at 10:00 AM.
It may be noted that earlier, on April 7, the Allahabad High Court had directed the Uttar Pradesh Government to produce the 82-year-old man after taking a serious view of this matter and had directed the respondents to produce the corpus on the next date fixed, failing which, the Court had added thus:
"...this Court may consider calling for the personal presence of all the concerned respondents and may also consider to impose exemplary costs considering the facts and circumstances of the case."
However, on April 25, the Additional Advocate General could only state the seized hard disc drives of the CCTV camera installed at T.B. Sapru Hospital, Prayagraj, between the duration when he went missing had been sent for examination to the Forensic Science Laboratory on April 19, 2022, for retrieving data from the aforesaid hard disc, and the report was still awaited.
Case title - Rahul Yadav v. State Of U.P. And 4 Others [Habeas Corpus Writ Petition No. - 399 of 2021]
Click Here To Read/Download Order