Delhi riots: Court directs police to supply copy of FIR to ex-JNU student leader Umar Khalid

A court here has directed the Delhi police to supply to former JNU student leader Umar Khalid a copy of the FIR of the case related to the north east Delhi riots in which he was arrested saying it is a settled proposition of law that no person shall be detained in custody without being informed of the grounds for such arrest.

The court referred to the provisions of the Constitution and criminal law and said fundamental right of protection against the arrest and detention is safeguarded under Article 22 and section 50 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) provided that relevant grounds for the arrest must be informed to the person by police official.

Khalid was arrested in the case related to the riots in Khajuri Khas area on October 1, while he was in judicial custody in another case related to larger conspiracy in the communal violence of February this year.

The court also directed the police to supply him the remand application and order of October 1 by which he was sent to three days police custody and reports of the medical examination conducted during police custody.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Purshotam Pathak said that the remand application and remand order and the medical reports did not contain any material which may not be disclosed due to sensitivity of the matter or for any other reason.

The court said that Article 22 (1) of the Constitution stipulated that no police official can arrest an individual without informing the grounds of his arrest and Article 22 of the Constitution guaranteed the fundamental right of protection against the arrest and detention.

It further said section 50 of the CrPC provided that every police official with authority to arrest someone without warrant, must inform the person getting arrested about the crime for which he is arrested and other relevant grounds for the arrest.

“It is settled proposition of law that no person shall be detained in custody without being informed, as soon as may be, of the grounds for such arrest. The provisions of Section 50 of the Code are mandatory. The police official must inform the arrested person all his rights after detainment and this is the duty of police official which he can not refuse.

“Arrested person is entitled to full particulars of the offences for which he is arrested or other grounds for such arrest and his detention will be illegal if he has not been communicated the particulars of the offence,” the court said in its order passed on October 20.

The court was hearing an application moved by Khalid's counsel seeking copies of the FIR related to the Khajuri Khas violence case, remand application moved by the police for his police custody, remand order and medical report, so as to know the grounds of his arrest.

His counsel also sought a copy of the reply filed by the investigating officer (IO) to an application filed earlier with the same prayers.

The duty magistrate had on October 3 permitted handing over certain articles to Khalid in custody and meeting with his counsel outside earshot of the police, but the prayer for supply of copies of the documents was pending.

The court further said that there were certain judgments of various high courts, requiring the police officials to supply the copy of FIR to accused before filing of charge sheet or immediately after registration of FIR, as it was vitally necessary that the accused should be granted copy of the First Information Report at the earliest possible stage in order to enable him to get the benefit of legal advice.

“An accused must be informed of the bare necessary facts leading to his arrest such as the grounds and the reasons, and the facts that in respect of whom and by whom the offence is said to have been committed as well as the date, time and the place of offences etc, and for that purpose there is no prohibition in law restricting the supply of certain documents to accused who has been remanded to judicial custody.

“Considering these facts and circumstances and settled position of law, it is expedient and in the interest of justice that a copy of FIR (101/2020), Police Station Khajuri Khas, copy of the remand application dated October 1, remand order dated October 1, granting police custody, medical reports of the medical conducted during the police custody and a copy of reply of IO relied upon in the order dated October 3 should be granted to accused (Khalid),” the court said.

Khalid is in judicial custody in the case.

He had stated in his application that he had earlier moved an application regarding the same and the duty magistrate on October 2 had called a report from the investigating officer and directed him to supply the copy of the FIR.

Special Public Prosecutor Manoj Chaudhary, appearing for the police, opposed the application saying there was no provision in law to supply the documents before taking the cognizance by the court.

The public prosecutor further said that Khalid has been informed about the grounds of his arrest and if the documents were supplied to him at this stage, it would open the “Pandora box” as then he might move a number of applications for supplying one or the other document.

Communal clashes had broken out in northeast Delhi on February 24 after violence between citizenship law supporters and protesters spiralled out of control leaving at least 53 people dead and around 200 injured.