BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court ruled that the verdicts of the Supreme Court, that grounds of arrest are to be informed to the accused, applies to the accused arrested under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and not for accused arrested under the Indian Penal Code and Karnataka Control of Organised Crimes Act, 2000 (KCOCA).
“There are close to 20,000 police stations in the country, arrests happen day in and day out. If grounds of arrest are to be informed, as held by the Apex Court in the cases of Pankaj Bansal, Prabir Purkayastha and Arvind Kejriwal in every arrest on any cognizable offence, it would undoubtedly open a Pandora’s box of interpretation of what could be the grounds of arrest, and lead to huge litigation before the constitutional courts,” said Justice M Nagaprasanna, dismissing the petition filed by John Moses D aka Madan Kumar, questioning his arrest by the CID.
Counsel of the petitioner contended that the arrest was illegal as the grounds of arrest were not made known to the petitioner, and is against the verdict of the apex court.
However, the prosecution contended that intimation of arrest would be enough and not grounds for arrest, as per Section 50 of CrPC. Therefore, the petition be dismissed on the score that several cases are registered against the petitioner who has swindled many innocent investors, the prosecution argued.
The court noted that Section 50 CrPC would not mandate divulgence of grounds of arrest, except information of arrest to the accused, and hence it would not vitiate the arrest of the petitioner.
However, Section 43-B of UAPA permits any officer arresting a person under this provision for an offence punishable under Section 43-A, as soon as may be, inform the person who is to be arrested on the grounds of such arrest. Likewise, Section 19 of PMLA which depicts the power to arrest mandates that the officer authorized by the central government as soon as possible, inform him of the grounds for such arrest. However, this does not apply to the arrests made under IPC and KCOCA, the court said.
Meanwhile, the court appreciated the assistance rendered by Additional State Public Prosecutor B N Jagadeesha in this case.