'Hardly The Picture Of A Welfare State', MPHC Reprimands EOW For TheArrest Of A 76 Yr Old Retired Colonel And Court For Denying Bail [Read Order]

While granting bail to a retired Colonel of the Indian Army, the Madhya Pradesh High Court recently rapped EOW for "arresting him in a case where an arrest was simply not warranted" and the court below for rejecting the applicant's bail application. The applicant was arrested in this case only because he happened to be on the post of President Tilak Grah Nirman Samiti, which had purchased lands from Mohammad Sharif who sold the same on the strength of the power of attorneys executed in his favour by the legal heirs of Faiz Mohammad, more than twenty-five years ago. The allegation was that the applicant Colonel Bhupendra Singh, is the President of the Tilak Grah Nirman Samiti and in that capacity he sold 34 acres of agricultural land from the 39 acres and the remaining 5 acres and 64 decimal were purchased in the name of the Grih Nirman Society, it was not the case of the EOW that any property had been purchased in the name of the applicant. Court below has trudged its way up to this court and nothing can indict the insensitivity of the judicial process more than this case where the applicant, a retired Colonel of the Indian Army, a senior citizen aged 78 years, ailing from heart disease has been in judicial custody since 24/07/2020 for an alleged non-heinous offence committed over twenty-five years ago.