Orissa HC flags arrest norm violations, asks home secretary and DGP to train police

CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court has asked Odisha’s principal secretary (home) and the director general of police to personally ensure training of police officers on mandatory arrest procedures, after finding repeated violations of constitutional safeguards in a Nayagarh bank robbery case on July 2, 2025.

Granting bail on Tuesday to three accused in the alleged robbery at the Mandhatapur branch of a nationalised bank, a single-judge bench of Justice Gaurishankar Satapathy said non-compliance with Article 22(1) of the Constitution and Section 47 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) was evident from the arrest records.

Justice Satapathy noted that the arrest memos merely mentioned that the accused were apprehended in the case, but the mandatory requirement of communicating the grounds of arrest in writing and ina language understood by the accused had not been complied with.“It is very high time to prevent such violation of mandatory provisions in as much as the offender may take the benefit of the non-compliance of the aforesaid mandatory statutory requirements, which is very much evident in this case,” he observed.

Justice Satapathy said the court had come across “so many cases about violations/infractions of the aforesaid provisions under Article 22(1)/Sec.47 of the BNSS (Sec.50 of CrPC) only ensuring to the benefit of the offender to get out of the custody mainly on technical grounds.”

“It is, therefore, considered appropriate to inform the Director General of Police, Odisha and the Principal Secretary to Home Department, Odisha to sufficiently train the police officers making arrest to comply the mandatory provisions of law, otherwise many hardened criminal will escape by taking this route, which is not in the interest of justice,” the Judge said.

“Accordingly,this Court requests the Principal Secretary, Home Department, Odisha and Director General of Police to bestow personal attention on this aspect to train the police officers and issue suitable instruction/circular to avoid this kind of situation for non-compliance of the aforesaid mandatory provisions, “Justice Satapathy said, adding, “A copy of the order be immediately communicated to Director General of Police and Principal Secretary to Home Department, Odisha for compliance.”

The accused —Pramod Nayak, Purna Chandra Prusty and Shiba Dakua — were booked under Sections 310(2), 311 and 111(3) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita read with Sections 25 and 27 of the Arms Act. The court directed their release on bail bonds of ₹25,000 each with one solvent surety. They were arrested on July 2, 2025.