The suspects, Akshay Kumar Meena and Sunny Lodha, were arrested by the cyber police following a complaint by a 72-year-old Mumbai resident who, along with his wife, was kept under digital arrest for over 40 days, resulting in the siphoning off of Rs 58 crore. Investigators claim that the suspect used 6,000 accounts to conceal the money trail and was allegedly involved in similar crimes worth nearly Rs 500 crore from different victims.
During the hearing, Lodha’s lawyer argued that his client understands only Hindi and English, while public prosecutor Mankhunwar Deshmukh stated that the officer had explained the reasons for arrest in Hindi.
A bench comprising Justices Bharti Dangre and Shyam Chandak said, “We find that the petitioner is a resident of Thane district and, therefore, he cannot claim that he does not know the language of Marathi. But in any case, when the Police Inspector has stated that the grounds of the arrest were communicated to him in writing and were also explained to him in the Hindi language, which he followed, we find no reason to hold that the petitioner has been prejudiced for failing to understand the grounds of the arrest and the pre-trial detention procedure could not be carried out.” be well defended.”
In Meena’s case, the police traveled to Rajasthan and, with local help, explained the reasons for the arrest in writing in Marathi and explained them in Hindi. Meena, conversant in Hindi and Marwari, expressed concern over not receiving a translation in his preferred language.
Expressing surprise at the police’s expectation to provide translations in every regional language, the bench said, “It is worth mentioning that the investigation team visited Rajasthan and since all proceedings, as far as Maharashtra is concerned, are being conducted in Marathi, without knowing that the accused does not understand Marathi when the grounds for arrest are communicated to him in Marathi, the officer ensured that the contents of the grounds for arrest communicated to him were explained in the language he understands.”
“This is sufficient compliance with the Supreme Court guidelines…whereas the grounds for arrest will be communicated in writing.”
The Supreme Court recently ruled that grounds for arrest must be communicated in writing in a language that the arrestee understands. The bench of the Bombay High Court found an oral statement in Hindi to meet this requirement, describing it as “sufficient compliance with the direction that the grounds for arrest should be communicated in writing to the arrestee in the language he/she understands.”
The court further observed, “Judgement after judgement, we are only talking about the rights of the accused, aren’t we? What about the rights of the victim who is cheated of how many crores? Only Rs 58 crore.”
– Ends
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