Suspecting Custodial Death Of Man Missing Since 2018, Allahabad High Court Converts Habeas Plea To Criminal Writ; Slams DGP

Expressing deep concern regarding the disappearance of a man missing from police custody since 2018, the Allahabad High Court on Tuesday observed that the matter may effectively be a case of "custodial death, where the policemen have murdered the missing man." Unconvinced by the explanation offered by the Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police (DGP), a Division Bench of Justice JJ Munir and Justice Sanjiv Kumar directed that the matter (a habeas corpus plea) be registered as a Criminal Miscellaneous Writ Petition to ensure a "very thorough investigation" into the case. The development comes after the Court, in a previous scathing indictment, had directed the state DGP to file a personal affidavit regarding the whereabouts of the missing man. On December 9, an affidavit of compliance was filed on behalf of the DGP, wherein details of the efforts made by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) were mentioned. The affidavit stated that the police had analysed 172 Call Detail Records (CDRs), contacted multiple banks and searched unidentified body registers, but still found "no conclusive information". The DGP's submission essentially reiterated the police version that Shiv Kumar/Corpus had absconded after being named in a POCSO case and was nowhere to be found. However, the Bench was not at all convinced by this explanation. In a sharp rebuke, the Court noted that the stand taken in the affidavit was "very unfazed" by HC's orders. "The stand taken by him [DGP] is, in short, that his men are right and the petitioners wrong. In between the firmness of the stand shown by the Director General of Police, which we do not appreciate, and our orders there is a man, who went to the police station and prima facie went missing from police custody, remains untraceable," the Court remarked. Dismissing the police's reliance on station records to prove their innocence, the Bench observed that "police registers are no records to trace the whereabouts of a missing man from police custody". The Court emphasised that the allegations against the police officers, specifically Sub-Inspector Arvind Kumar and others who were booked under Section 364 (Kidnapping) and 120B (Conspiracy) only after the HC's intervention in 2021, required an independent and discreet inquiry. Against this backdrop, noting the limitations of a Habeas Corpus writ when faced with the grim possibility that the corpus (body) may no longer be alive, the Court observed thus: "Since, this matter may now require a very thorough investigation into the FIR lodged against the Sub-Inspector...to ascertain the fact, if indeed it is a case of custodial death, where the policemen have murdered the missing man, the scope of the directions required to be made may well be beyond what this Court can do hearing a writ petition for the issue of a habeas corpus," the Bench stated. Consequently, the Court directed the Registry to register the case as a Criminal Misc. Writ Petition and listed it for hearing as the first case on December 12, 2025. Background The case traces back to September 2018, when Shiv Kumar was allegedly picked up by the Paikolia Police in Basti district. While the police claimed he was 'untraceable' for seven years, the High Court had recently termed the timeline of the case an "utter mockery" of the justice system. In its previous orders, the Court had noted that the order-sheet read like a "book of police evasion", with the police "hoodwinking this Court" for years. The Bench had sternly warned that if the detenue had been 'eliminated', the responsibility would not stop at junior officers and the then Superintendent of Police "cannot be spared." Previously, the Court had remarked that the eight-year-old rule nisi was still "floating anchorless" and asserted there was "no fourth way". The Court had clarified that the police must either produce the detenue or evidence of his death.

Suspecting Custodial Death Of Man Missing Since 2018, Allahabad High Court Converts Habeas Plea To Criminal Writ; Slams DGP

Sparsh Upadhyay

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