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Synopsis

The Bombay High Court has recently declared the arrest of a man illegal, who was booked for raping a woman after he allegedly disguised himself as single on a matrimonial website.

A division bench of the high court, comprising Justice Bharati Dangre and Justice Manjusha Deshpande, was hearing a petition filed by Faisal Ashraf Tole seeking to declare his arrest illegal on the ground that it was in gross violation of the fundamental rights guaranteed under Article 21 and 22 of the Constitution.

The complainant specifically alleged that she was acquainted and introduced to the petitioner through a matrimonial website. She was under the impression that he was unmarried and on the pretext of marriage, he had sexual intercourse with her without her consent and against her will.

In addition, it was also alleged that he had expended an amount of Rs.1,84,000 from her Credit Card. Therefore, Faisal was booked under Sections 376 and 420 of IPC.

The complainant argued that the writ of habeas corpus may not be issued, as by short-circuiting the procedure available in law, by filing a bail application before the high court, since his bail applications were rejected by the Sessions Court, he has invoked the writ jurisdiction of this Court.

The prosecutor argued that the petitioner was informed about the grounds of arrest and therefore, the contention raised in the petition that there was a violation of his fundamental right and also of Section 50 of Cr. P.C is specifically denied.

The bench referred to the Apex Court’s guidelines and said that there is a distinction between ‘reasons of arrest’ and ‘grounds of arrest’, and the reasons of arrest are specifically set out to be the ones which are of purely formal parameters. Whereas, grounds of arrest are contemplated to contain all such details in the hands of the Investigating Officer which necessitated the arrest of the accused.

Accordingly, the bench proceeded to release the petitioner while noting that, “if the arrest and remands are declared to be illegal, there is no reason why the petitioner should continue to be in custody, even though in Magisterial custody, and therefore, the relief is prayed for declaring his detention to be illegal, by issuing a writ of Habeas Corpus, for his release, which is now declared as illegal, since the arrest is effected in flagrant violation of the fundamental right as well as in utter contrast to the requirement under Section 50 of Cr.P.C,” the order states.

Case title: Faisal Ashraf Tole vs State of Maharashtra