The Delhi High Court has ordered the Station House Officer of Shamli police station in Uttar Pradesh to appear in person before it on October 28 after taking into account a case where two persons — father and brother of a man who got married to a woman against her family’s wishes — were arrested and taken away without informing Delhi Police.
Justice Mukta Gupta, while hearing a petition by the couple, said: “It is trite law that the father and brother of the petitioner No. 2 (husband) could not be apprehended by U.P. Police and taken from Delhi without informing Delhi Police.”
Justice Gupta termed it “unfortunate” that even without finding whether the woman was an adult or a minor and without verifying the facts with her, arrests were made by U.P. Police. “One fails to understand when petitioner No. 1 (wife) is major and has left her parental home of her own free will and married petitioner No. 2, how an offence under Section 366 (abduction) and consequential offence under Section 368 (wrongful confinement) of IPC is made out,”
The couple told the court that they got married in July this year, against to the wishes of the woman’s family, and were getting repeated threats from them. The petition said that the father and brother of the husband were taken away by U.P. Police from their residence in Delhi and for more than one month now, their whereabouts were not known.
According to Delhi Police, no intimation of the arrival of the police team from Shamli, U.P., was made. It said in its status report that an enquiry was made from the officers of Shamli police station who admitted that the father and son had been arrested following an FIR by the mother of the woman.
