MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court (HC) on Wednesday ruled the arrest of a businessman as illegal after he was detained for over 24 hours without being produced before a magistrate, terming the delay a “gross violation” of his fundamental rights. The court ordered his immediate release from judicial custody.
The case involves Kaushik Rameshchandra Thakkar, a real estate businessman accused in a 2023 cheating case. According to the complaint, Thakkar allegedly sold four flats in the Dream Heritage building in Ulwe, Navi Mumbai, for ₹7.67 crore using forged documents, fake signatures, and counterfeit government stamps.
An FIR was registered at Kasarvadavali police station in Thane on July 26, 2024. Thakkar had applied for anticipatory bail on July 25, but the plea became infructuous after the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) arrested him on August 16—the same day arguments on his bail application were scheduled in the Thane sessions court.
Thakkar was produced before the Thane magistrate at 2:50pm on August 17, nearly 32 hours after his arrest. He was remanded to police custody and later to judicial custody at Thane Central Prison on August 22. He claimed that he was arrested in Palanpur, Gujarat, but no transit remand was obtained from the local magistrate there. The arrest location was recorded as Thane in the station diary, raising concerns about procedural lapses.
In his petition, Thakkar alleged that he was neither informed of the grounds of his arrest nor presented promptly before a magistrate, as required by law. He argued that the delay in producing him before the magistrate violated Article 22(2) of the Constitution, which mandates that an arrested person be brought before a magistrate within 24 hours.
The police, in their defence, claimed Thakkar had been informed of the reasons for his arrest and was kept in the Thane Nagar police lock-up for security reasons.
However, a division bench of Justices Ravindra Ghuge and Ashwin Bhobe, after examining the station diary and the timeline of events, held that the delay was unjustified. The bench noted that the magistrate’s court was just 500 metres from the EOW office and that the police had failed to provide any valid reason for the overnight delay in presenting Thakkar.
The court declared Thakkar’s arrest and subsequent remand illegal and directed the authorities to release him immediately. It also observed that his release would not affect the ongoing trial.