Lawyer seems to have been "abducted" by police: Jharkhand High Court

The Jharkhand High Court on Tuesday heard a habeus corpus writ petition seeking to know the whereabouts of an additional public prosecutor who has been allegedly detained by Patna police and observed that the lawyer seems to have been "abducted" by the police and not arrested as per law. A division bench of Justices Sujit Narayan Prasad and Ananda Sen while hearing the petition filed by Sweta Priyadarshini, the wife of the additional public prosecutor Rajneesh Vardhan who was allegedly picked up by Patna police on November 7 from his residence, questioned Bihar and Jharkhand police for not following the norms established in law for arresting a person and asked them to explain their reasons.

The bench also questioned the actions of Ranchi police which assisted the police team from Patna that had come to nab Vardhan.

The HC after hearing the Jharkhand and Bihar government counsel sought a reply from the Patna and Ranchi senior superintendents of police in the case.


The court has also ordered the chief secretary of Jharkhand to be made a party in the case, which will come up for hearing again on November 25.

The writ petition by Priyadarshini was filed and mentioned before the high court, which though being closed for Diwali and Chhath holidays, was opened and a special bench was constituted to hear it.

The petition said the Patna police team accompanied by personnel of Sukhdevnagar police station here had entered Vardhan's house at 10.30 pm on November 7, beat up the lawyer mercilessly and forcibly took him away in its vehicle.

Priyadarshini in her petition said that the policemen did not reveal why Vardhan was being taken away or in what case he was wanted despite requests made by her and her husband.

The Advocates Association of Jharkhand High Court swung into action on Monday when it received intimation about the incident.

Association secretary Navin Kumar said that the police flouted the procedures to be followed while arresting a person.

Such high handedness of the police cannot be accepted under any cost, Kumar said.

Condemning the action, Jharkhand State Bar Council member Hemant Kumar Shikarwar had said on Monday that the high-handedness of the police needed to be checked.

Vardhan has been an advocate since 2003 and resides in Ranchi with his wife and daughter.