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2015 (5) TMI 1258 - CALCUTTA HIGH COURTPolice custody beyond remand period - Relevant date from which date the first period of fifteen days mentioned in Section 167(2) of the Cr.P.C. is to be computed - HELD THAT:- In the case in hand, the Additional Superintendent of Police, CBI, SCB (SIT), Kolkata effected arrest of the accused. Therefore, it is his duty to take or send the person arrested before the Magistrate having jurisdiction in the case. Section 57 Cr.P.C. commands that no police officer shall detain in custody a person arrested without warrant for a long period exceeding twenty four hours which period is exclusive of the time necessary for the journey from the place of arrest to the Magistrate. The only relaxation for production of the arrested accused within twenty four hours contained in Section 57 Cr.P.C. is in case the Magistrate under Section 167 Cr.P.C. by special order authorized the police officer to detain such person for a period of more than twenty four hours. In case an arrested accused person acquired any health problem after his arrest, then it is for the police officer to produce the accused before the Magistrate within twenty four hours after obtaining Medical Certification of the accused from a Government Doctor and thereafter it is for the Magistrate who after authorising the custody of the accused to this specified authority under Section 167(2) Cr.P.C. to take a decision and to give a direction either to prison authorities in case the accused is authorised to be detained in prison or to the police authorities in case the accused is authorized to be detained in police custody, for getting necessary medical aid and to provide necessary medical facilities to the accused so detained. It is not for the police officer to admit the accused in a hospital and to violate legal and constitutional mandate of production of the arrested accused before the Magistrate within twenty four hours of his detention under arrest. Such action on the part of the police officers is likely to lead unscrupulous tendencies like in the present case, where the accused was allowed to remain in hospital from 31.01.2015 to 06.02.2015 after his arrest without production before a Magistrate, till the accused was declared fit by the hospital authorities and he was produced on 07.02.2015. Such activity on the part of the police officers will give wrong signals to the society and to the public at large that rich and influential person can manage unscrupulous police officers, so that they need not go either to a Court or to a prison even after arrest while in custody. The said C.B.I. Officer prima-facie committed a Constitutional violation in not producing the accused before the Magistrate within twenty four hours of his arrest. His action/inaction in this regard is highly deplorable. The remand order passed by the jurisdiction Magistrate alone has to be legally considered as first remand for all the practical purposes. In the case of CBI v. Anupam J. Kulkarni [1992 (5) TMI 191 - SUPREME COURT] the Hon'ble Supreme Court has clearly laid down that the period of 90 days or 60 days has to be computed from the date of detention as per the orders of the Magistrate and not from the date of arrest by the police. Consequently the first period of fifteen days mentioned in Section 167(2) has to be computed from the date of such detention and after the expiry of the period of first fifteen days it should be only judicial custody. In the instant case the Learned Magistrate passed the remand order on 01.02.2015 sending the accused into the judicial custody till 13.02.2015. Therefore, the impugned order passed on 15.02.2015 remanding the petitioner/accused to police custody till 21.02.2015 is beyond the first remand period of fifteen days. Therefore, such order is absolutely illegal and cannot be sustained. This Court is of the firm view that the police custody cannot be ordered in any circumstances beyond the first remand period of fifteen days. In such view of the matter the impugned order under challenge is liable to be set aside and accordingly it is set aside. Revision allowed.
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