New Delhi: SC Tuesday refused bail to Mihir Rajesh Shah, son of a Sena functionary and accused in the 2024 Worli hit-and-run in which a woman died after being dragged under a BMW for 1.5km, saying the accused displayed “most inhuman conduct”.
A bench of Justices B R Gavai and A G Masih said it had clarified earlier it was not inclined to entertain the petition challenging Bombay HC’s judgment declining to quash Shah’s arrest and had agreed to hear the counsel with regard to 2 questions: Whether in every IPC case, it is mandatory to furnish grounds of arrest before or immediately after the arrest? And, whether the mandate can be quashed in exceptional cases where it is not possible to provide grounds of arrest immediately?
Before reserving the verdict, SC said, “Imagine… someone is shooting people in public. Should police take him into custody or wait to prepare grounds for arrest?… Our judgments (interpreting Article 22 to mandate police to furnish grounds of arrest) have been grossly misused”. Dhananjay Mahapatra reports
A Supreme Court bench of Justices B R Gavai and A G Masih on Tuesday refused bail to Mihir Rajesh Shah, the accused in the BMW hit-and-run case in Worli from July last year.
Justice Gavai said, “This is one of the most gruesome cases in which the accused dragged the woman under your car after hitting the bike in which she was riding pillion. In such a case should the police arrest you immediately or go to the police station and prepare grounds of arrest in writing before taking you into custody?”
The bench reserved the verdict on two questions over furnishing grounds of the arrest after hearing amicus curiae Shri Singh as well as senior advocates A M Singhvi for Shah, and Vikram Chaudhari and Karl P Rustomkhan for other accused in different cases.
Singhvi argued that hard cases can lead to laying down of bad laws.
But in this hard case, the SC can lay down a good law by not jettisoning the well-reasoned interpretation of Article 22 of the Constitution and say that the police, except in exceptional cases, must furnish grounds of arrest to the accused prior to taking him/her in custody.
The Justice Gavai-led bench said, “Imagine a situation where someone is shooting people in public… Should this mandate restrain police from arresting a person even in hard cases?” Singhvi said this example could be part of the exceptions.
“Even in hard cases, accused are now not seeking bail but moving the high courts for quashing of arrest on the ground that it has been rendered illegal as grounds of arrest have not been communicated to them prior to arrest,” Justice Gavai said.
The incident happened on July 7 last year when a speeding BMW car hit the bike of one Pradeep on Annie Besant Road in Worli (Mumbai). He was thrown on the sidewalk, but his wife Kaveri was caught between the front wheel and bumper of the car. Instead of stopping, the accused continued to drive and dragged the 45-year-old woman for one and half kilometers. After the accident, Shah fled and was arrested two days later from Palghar.
A division bench of Bombay HC had dismissed Shah’s plea for quashing the arrest on Nov 25 and said, “This is a case where we feel that acting in utter derogation of respect to human life, the petitioners, mowed down, the wife of the complainant and in utter disregard to any humanitarian conduct, ruthlessly the vehicle was driven with her body being entangled between the bonnet and the wheels.”