In a similar case, the court ordered a CBI probe into the “wrongful confinement” of two residents by Samaipur Badli police on false charges and ordered the state to cough up Rs 25,000 as token compensation in favour of the victims.

In the first matter, Keshav Kumar, a businessman, was arrested from his house in Moti Nagar on July 16, 2006 and “kept illegally” in the local police station under the provisions of preventive detention. The court was told that Kumar’s arrest was based on an “undated complaint” given by a local henchman, A K Munna. Munna’s complaint claimed Kumar had verbally abused him over a dispute about an “unauthorised construction”, purportedly effected by Munna, in the neighbourhood.

Kumar was produced before the Special Executive Magistrate (SEM), an ACP, a day after his arrest and was sent to judicial custody to Tihar Jail. This was regardless of the fact that he had sureties ready to get a bail, the court noted.

“The ACP did not listen to the requests and pleas of Kumar or his advocate, or other persons of his locality who had come to stand surety for him,” Justice S N Dhingra observed. “The section (preventive detention) cannot be invoked when there is a civil dispute between two neighbours. Police cannot act as an agent for those who construct illegal constructions.”