Delhi High Court Grants Last Opportunity To UP Govt For Filing Status Report In Probe Against Errant Police Officers Who Harassed Couple

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday granted one last opportunity to the Uttar Pradesh Government for filing status report in the probe conducted against it's errant police officers over harassment of a runaway couple.

The father and brother of the man from Delhi, who married a woman against her family's wishes, were arrested by the UP Police for kidnapping. The couple, a major, claimed to have married out of their own free will. They alleged that the arrests were made from their residence in Delhi, without informing the Delhi Police. 

The Uttar Pradesh government had earlier informed the Court that it had suspended the concerned SHO and Sub Inspector and that a SIT was formed to probe the matter.

On Tuesday, Justice Mukta Gupta said that the UP Police only had to check as to whether the officials concerned had come to Delhi and arrested the persons without informing the Delhi Police.

Additional Advocate General Garima Prashad appearing for the UP Government sought some more time in order to file status report in the matter.

To this, the Court orally remarked thus:

"The only question that was left in this petition was whether the police officials came to Delhi and illegally arrested the two persons. That does not take more than two days to investigate".

Accordingly, two days' time was granted to the UP Police for filing a status report in the matter.

The Court will now hear the matter on January 18.

The Court had earlier slammed the UP Police for the alleged conduct. The UP Police had however claimed that the accused were arrested from a bus stand in UP's Shamli district.

The petitioners had claimed that they were getting repeated threats and that the father and brother of the man were taken away by U.P. police for the last one and half months and their whereabouts were not known.

"This will not be permitted here in Delhi. You cannot do illegal acts over here," the Court had remarked in the previous hearing.

The Court had also pulled up the police for not verifying the age of the woman before making arrests in the matter.

Case Title: X & Anr v. GNCTD