In a dramatic turn of events, two directors of Dnyanradha Cooperative Multi-State Credit Society, Beed, were freed by the special court in Malegaon, which held their arrest “illegal” as the investigating officer had taken them into custody in a cheating case without stating the “reasons and / or grounds”.
However, the directors – society chairman Suresh Kute and joint director Ashish Patodekar – could not walk free as the embarrassed police arrested the duo outside the court premises in another case.
Kute and Patodekar were arrested on June 7 on the complaint of a customer when the society failed to return his deposit. They were charged for cheating, criminal breach of trust and under the Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors (In Financial Establishments) (MPID) Act.
The two were remanded to police custody till Thursday. However, on Thursday, when they were produced before the court, their lawyers Aman Kacheria and Rahul Agarwal moved the plea claiming their arrest to be “illegal”.
It was claimed that they were picked from Pune but shown as arrested only after they were brought to Majalgaon city police station. They claimed that the officers reached Kute’s house in plain clothes and none of the family members or relatives were informed about the factum of the arrest. Until their pleas were heard, they were in house arrest.
Special judge BG Dharmadhikari on Saturday observed that the police failed to communicate the grounds of arrest in writing. Besides, the arrest memo was in a computerised format and did not contain any column regarding the grounds of arrest.
The court also noted that they were arrested on June 7 at 7.51am in Pune and then taken to Majalgaon on the same day without transit remand, where they were shown arrested at 5.46pm.
The court also referred to the apex court’s verdict of DK Basu and observed that the police carrying out the arrest should bear accurate, visible and clear identification and name tags with their designations. Meanwhile, the legal team of the two accused said that the arrest outside the courtroom is illegal as well and they will contest it in court. Meanwhile, the legal team of the two accused said that the arrest outside the courtroom is illegal as well and they will contest it in court.
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