A, an accused is arrested by a police officer B in the execution of a warrant issued against him… Is the detention of A after arrest in compliance with the warrant, legal?

Question: A, an accused is arrested by a police officer B in the execution of a warrant issued against him. The police officer, executing the warrant of arrest, keeps the accused A in his custody for 26 hours after such arrest on the basis of a warrant. Is the detention of A after arrest in compliance with the warrant, legal? Give reasons.

Find the answer to the mains question only on Legal Bites. [A, an accused is arrested by a police officer B in the execution of a warrant issued against him… Is the detention of A after arrest in compliance with the warrant, legal?]

Answer

Chapter ­VI of Code of Criminal Procedure deals with the process to compel appearance. The warrant may be issued to Police Officer or any other person to execute the same. The term warrant is not defined in the Code of Criminal Procedure. As per the Concise Oxford dictionary, “Warrant is an official authorization enabling the police or some other body to make an arrest, search premises, etc”. Thus, it is an order or writ of the Court directing and empowering a particular person/authority to execute the directions in the warrant.

Section 76 provides that the Police Officer executing the warrant shall produce the arrested person immediately not exceeding 24 hours before the Magistrate. Section 76 states that the police officer or other person executing a warrant of arrest shall (subject to the provisions of section 71 as to security) without unnecessary delay bring the person arrested before the Court before which he is required by law to produce such person.

Provided that such delay shall not, in any case, exceed twenty-four hours exclusive of the time necessary for the journey from the place of arrest to the Magistrate’s Court.

So, in the present case, it can be said that A has been arrested by B, a police officer, and was not produced before the Magistrate within 24 hours of his arrest in contravention of the mandatory provision laid down in Section 76. Thus, the detention of A is illegal, even though the accused was arrested in execution of the warrant issued against him.

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