Court pulls up police for flip flop in IPL scandal probe

Delhi Police was today pulled up by a court here for its flip flop in the handling of the IPL spot-fixing case and hiding the arrest of Abhishek Shukla, a friend of cricketer S Sreesanth, and termed it as a "bad practice".

The court was also anguished that Shukla, who was arrested this morning, was taken to Mumbai in connection with the probe without informing it and taking its permission.
Delhi Police had not disclosed the arrest of Shukla and it was only revealed when the judge put some questions to them.

The inspector, who was leading the team of policemen while seeking the custody of three co-accused Vikash Chowdhury, Nitin Jain and Vinod Sharma, spoke about the arrest of Shukla when the judge put a specific question whether any more arrest has been made or not.

Replying in affirmative, the inspector told Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Lokesh Kumar Sharma that they have arrested Shukla who has been taken to Mumbai.

The reply of the inspector angered the judge who questioned the investigators for flouting the law which required the court's permission to take the accused outside the national capital.

"How can you (police) take him (Shukla) to Mumbai without even producing him in the court and without taking his custody? If you failed to produce him in the court within 24 hours of his arrest i.e by 11 AM tomorrow, it would amount to violation of provisions of the CrPC," the judge said.

"Come prepared tomorrow with your answer if you will produce Shukla after 11 AM and face the consequences," the judge added.