Almost 11 months later, on June 18, 2024, Dhebar, who had been granted bail by the Chhattisgarh High Court, was again arrested by UP police just 20 minutes after his release in Raipur.Following the arrest, the Investigation Officer (IO) applied for a transit remand under Section 167 of CrPC before the magistrate at Raipur and it was granted for 48 hours. Subsequently, Dhebar was produced before the special judge (Prevention of Corruption Act) of Meerut, who remanded him to judicial custody until July 1, 2024. Finally, Dhebar moved Allahabad High Court and his plea was clubbed with the petition filed by the other accused ex-IAS officer Anil Tuteja who was arrested separately in the connection with the same case. As both the petitions sought the court to declare their arrest illegal, they were heard together by the court. On the other hand, the Additional Advocate General for the state submitted that since there was a memo of arrest and the son of the petitioner Dhebar had been informed about the arrest, the arrest could not be held illegal as the reason for it was known to the petitioner. The bench however was not satisfied with the Additional Advocate General’s contention, and it stated that neither in the memos of arrest nor in the information given to Dhebar’s son or in the remand orders were given the ground of arrest communicated to the petitioners. Furthermore, the court also observed that the petitioners were given no opportunity of hearing to oppose the custodial remand. The court concluded that the petitioners were never furnished the grounds of arrest as mandated under Section 50 of CrPC. Declaring their arrests illegal, the court refused to interfere with the charge-sheet submitted by the investigation officer. The Court, however, clarified that the proceedings following law as per the charge-sheet may continue in the case.
Source link
