Serious conversations around criminal procedure in India usually happen in the event of scandalous exercise of authority by the powers that be. Currently, we are witnessing one such wave of interest in the subject, prompted by the arrest and custodial detention of Alt News co-founder Mohammad Zubair, purportedly for having published a tweet almost four years ago which has only now caused hurt to the religious sentiments of unidentified persons. There have been opinions on almost every step taken by the police and courts and, expectedly, across partisan lines. Those standing with the accused decry his persecution and that of independent journalism, while others argue that the police ought to be allowed to probe the case and let the truth be established through an investigation. Given the nature of the news cycle, we view everything through the lens of the spectacle of the case that is unfolding before our eyes. We let the peculiar facts of each case lure us into thinking that the ordeal on display is not the law in action but an act of vengefulness. We are not witnessing the law unfold, but its perversion at the hands of biased agencies, and depending on where we stand, we might even be cheering it on in the background. The suggestion of illegal targeting by agences might be true in some cases in India, but perhaps it is not so in the ongoing prosecution of Mr. Zubair. And that is what should worry us all.
Was the arrest necessary?
Was it improper to arrest a person in one case, especially after summoning him in respect of another? It certainly was. Was it illegal? Perhaps not. The offences alleged to have been committed in the objectionable tweet case were cognisable, giving the police the power to arrest if there was a reasonable suspicion that the accused had committed the alleged crime as required by Section 41 in the Code of Criminal Procedure. These conditions were arguably satisfied here as authorship of the tweet was not in dispute. But while arrest might have been legally permitted, was it strictly necessary?
