When the police take a person into custody, Constitutional provisions decree that he should be produced before a magistrate within 24 hours, the State Human Rights Commission has said. SHRC chairperson, J. B. Koshy, said that it was wrong to assume that the arrested need be produced before the magistrate within 24 hours of the arrest being recorded. As per the Supreme Court, necessary entries should be made in a police station’s General Diary even before a person is actually taken into custody, he said in an order pronounced here. The order was issued after hearing a complaint filed by Sahila of Varkala, who said that her brother had been arrested by Varkala police on March 25 night and was since being held in illegal custody.
