Allahabad High Court Orders Release of Real Estate Director, Calls Arrest in Noida Techie Death Case Illegal
By Rajesh Pandey
The Allahabad High Court has directed the immediate release of Abhay Kumar, director of MZ Wiztown Planners, after observing that his arrest in connection with a software engineer’s death in Noida was carried out in violation of mandatory legal procedures.
A division bench comprising Justice Siddhartha and Justice Jai Krishna Upadhyay noted that the police failed to comply with Clause 13 of the arrest memo, which makes it compulsory to inform the accused of the grounds of arrest and hand over a copy of the memo before taking them into custody.
The court passed the order while allowing a habeas corpus petition filed on Kumar’s behalf, seeking his release from what was termed illegal detention.
The petition also challenged the judicial remand orders dated January 20 and 21, passed by the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) of Gautam Buddha Nagar, arguing that the Supreme Court’s guidelines on arrest procedures had not been followed.
During the hearing, Kumar’s counsel cited an earlier high court ruling in a similar matter, pointing out that the mandatory clause regarding arrest formalities had once again been ignored.
Accepting the arguments, the high court quashed the remand orders issued by the CJM and held the arrest to be unlawful.
Kumar had been taken into custody by the Greater Noida Police following the registration of an FIR related to the death of 27-year-old software engineer Yuvraj Mehta.
Mehta lost his life on January 16 after his car plunged into a water-filled trench at an undeveloped site in Sector 150, Noida.
The trench had reportedly formed due to poor stormwater management, and the land had remained under the control of Wiztown Planners for several years without development.
The high court’s ruling has once again highlighted lapses in arrest procedures and reinforced the need for law enforcement agencies to strictly adhere to constitutional safeguards.
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