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2015 (6) TMI 1268 - GUJARAT HIGH COURTGrant of remand to petitioner - remand application filed after the petitioner was produced before the learned Special Judge - HELD THAT:- The Supreme Court, in CENTRAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION SPECIAL INVESTIGATION CELL-I VERSUS ANUPAM J. KULKARNI [1992 (5) TMI 191 - SUPREME COURT] has considered the question in all its legal aspects, whether a person arrested and produced before the Magistrate as required under Section 167(1) of the Code, can still be remanded to the police custody after the expiry of initial period of fifteen days. It may be useful to refer to the facts in the said case. In the present case, the accused was arrested on 15th September 2014 and was produced before the learned Special Judge on 16th September 2014. The police applied for his custody on the same day by filing a remand application. For some reason or the other, although the fault is sought to be found with the accused, no orders could be passed within fifteen days from the date of the production and the impugned order was passed on 25th March 2015. It is thus clear that the first fifteen days expired by the date of the order i.e. 25th March 2015. The Court below, therefore, committed a serious error in holding that police custody could be granted after the expiry of fifteen days of the production of the accused. In C.B.I v. Anupam J.Kulkarni, it has been held that Section 167 of the Code is supplementary to Section 57, Cr.P.C. As per the Code, the investigation should be completed in the first instance within 24 hours; if not the arrested person should be brought by the police before a Magistrate as provided under Section 167 of the Code. While doing so, the police should also transmit a copy of the entries made in the diary relating to the case which is meant to afford to the Magistrate, in order to furnish the necessary information upon which, he can take the decision whether the accused should be detained in the custody further or not - the Judicial Magistrate can in the first instance authorise the detention of the accused either to judicial custody or police custody, but the total period of detention cannot exceed fifteen days in the whole, after the first remand. Within this period of fifteen days, there can be more than one order changing the nature of such custody either from police to judicial or vice-versa, as decided by the Hon'ble Apex Court in the decision cited. A close look at the decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Kosanapu Ramreddy [1992 (7) TMI 356 - SUPREME COURT] reveals that there is no reference at all to the decision of Anupam earlier in point of time. What is discernible from Kosanapu Ramreddy is that if the accused challenges the order of remand, and by the time his challenge is considered by the Court if the initial period of fifteen days (in that case it was 60 days because of TADA) expires, then that would not put an end to the matter. If the challenge fails, then the order passed prior to the expiry of 60 days would get revived and could be given effect to. This application succeeds and is hereby allowed. The impugned order dated 25th March 2015 passed by the 3rd Additional Sessions Judge, Surat, is hereby ordered to be quashed and set aside.
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