Mumbai, May 12 (UNI) A local court at Bandra is set to pass an order on Tuesday on a plea moved by the Bangladeshi national accused of breaking into actor Saif Ali Khan’s home and stabbing him.
The accused has sought immediate release from jail, claiming that the police did not give him in writing the grounds for his arrest, which is mandatory, before apprehending him.
In a plea filed before the metropolitan magistrate court in Bandra last week, Mohammad Shariful Islam Shehzad, 30, stated that his arrest was illegal and was in violation of section 47 of Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS). The section mandates that a police officer arresting any person without a warrant should communicate full particulars of the offence for which an accused is being arrested or reveal other grounds for an arrest.
The accused has cited various Supreme Court and high court orders holding that the law mandates furnishing the reasons and grounds of arrest to the accused before apprehending him, and that not complying with this mandatory requirement renders the arrest illegal.
In one of the judgments mentioned in the plea, the Supreme Court held that police officers must furnish the grounds of arrest to the accused persons in writing. This should be done to avoid situations arising out of conflicting claims and to enable the accused to get an opportunity to defend himself during the remand hearing, the top court said.
It also held that subsequent remand orders and the filing of the chargesheet in the case would not cure the defect.
Earlier the accused had withdrawn the bail plea moved in the sessions court. Later he approached the Bandra magistrate court with this application claiming that his arrest was illegal.
Two months back, the police filed a chargesheet running into more than 1,000-pages which includes crucial forensic evidence that allegedly links the suspect to the attack.
Khan was repeatedly stabbed with a knife by the intruder inside his 12th floor apartment in upscale Bandra on January 16 this year.
The 54-year-old actor underwent an emergency surgery at the Lilavati Hospital.
He was discharged after five days. The accused was arrested by the police two days after the incident.
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