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The Supreme Court has declared as “invalid in the eyes of law” the arrest of NewsClick founder Prabir Purkayastha in a case under the anti-terror law and directed that he be released from custody.
The apex court observed that a copy of the remand application in the “purported exercise of communication” of grounds of arrest in writing was not provided to Purkayastha or his counsel before the passing of the remand order dated October 4, 2023 which “vitiates” his arrest and subsequent remand.
“As a result, the appellant is entitled to a direction for release from custody by applying the ratio of the judgement rendered by this court in the case of Pankaj Bansal,” a bench of Justices B R Gavai and Sandeep Mehta said.
“Accordingly, the arrest of the appellant (Purkayastha) followed by the remand order dated and so also the impugned order passed by the High Court of Delhi, are hereby declared to be invalid in the eyes of law and are quashed and set aside,” it said.
The bench delivered its verdict on Purkayastha’s plea challenging the high court’s October 13 last year order dismissing his plea against arrest and subsequent police remand in the case.
He was arrested by the Special Cell of the Delhi Police on October 3 last year.
While pronouncing the judgement, the apex court said, “Though, we would have been persuaded to direct the release of the appellant without requiring him to furnish bonds of security, since the charge sheet has been filed, we feel it appropriate to direct that the appellant shall be released from custody on furnishing bail bonds to the satisfaction of the trial court.”
