"Entire Dept Protecting Custodial Death Accused Police Personnel": Patna High Court Denies Pre-Arrest Bail To Policeman

Observing that the entire police department is protecting the police personnel who are accused of causing the custodial death of 2 persons, the Patna High Court on Wednesday rejected the anticipatory bail plea filed by a policeman accused in the matter.

The Bench of Justice Sandeep Kumar made this observation as it noted that despite the fact that the custodial death case is of the year 2019, the accused police personnel had not been arrested.

Essentially, the Court was dealing with the anticipatory bail plea of one Arun Kumar, who submitted that at the time of the alleged incident, he was on OD duty and was sent by the Station House Officer to collect the postmortem report and other documents.

It was further submitted that since he was not involved in the crime, therefore, he deserved anticipatory bail.

Observing that the certificate or some letter by one of the accused persons i.e. Station House Officer will not come in rescue of the petitioner, the court further remarked thus:

"It appears that the entire Police Station is involved in the killing of two persons...In such circumstances, this is not a fit case for grant of anticipatory bail to the petitioner. Accordingly, this anticipatory bail application is dismissed."

Further, the Court noted that the case is of the year 2019 and despite no interim protection by the Court, the petitioner had not been arrested. Therefore, the Court directed the petitioner to surrender before the Court below within a period of one week.

Importantly, as per the Court's order, if he fails to surrender within the aforesaid period of one week, then, the Superintendent of Police, Sitamarhi, shall arrest the petitioner within next one week and send a report in this regard before the Court.

As per the report of the Indian Express, two men, Gufran Alam, 30, and Taslim Ansari, 32, had been detained in a robbery and murder case by the Dumrah (Sitamarhi, Bihar) Police Station and thereafter, they were allegedly tortured to death in police custody on March 7, 2019.

Photos and a video clip of their bodies being washed before their burial showed marks of nails hammered into them.

Case title - Arun Kumar v. State of Bihar

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