HC seeks Delhi govt's response on guidelines for arrest

The Delhi High Court today sought a response from the AAP government on a plea seeking framing of guidelines relating to arrest and summoning of any person to a police station.
A bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankaran issued notice to the government and sought a status report in this regard within two weeks on a petition alleging police harassment while threatening arrest.
The court put up the matter for further hearing on October 10.
The petition, moved through advocates Nikhil Borwankar and Varsha Ranjan, sought a direction to the Delhi Police to refrain from arbitrarily summoning any person to the police station over telephone unless exigent circumstances exist, which is recorded by the officer in writing.

It also sought a direction to the agency to frame rules and the time-frame regarding inquiry into allegations against an investigating officer in an extant probe.
The petitioner claimed that despite joining investigation on various dates in a domestic violence case, his attendance was never officially recorded and he had to resort to filing of documents and obtaining receiving of the contemporary dates in order to prove his attendance.

"After the investigating officer (IO) refused to record his attendance, he apprehended arrest on the pretext of failure to join the probe and, therefore, moved trial court for anticipatory bail and got the relief," the petition said.

During the hearing of the bail application, the IO submitted that the petitioner was not joining the probe, it said.
Later, the petitioner filed a complaint with senior police officers about the alleged conduct and threats extended to him by the IO and claiming that he had misled the court.