It was recently held by the Bombay high court that the police cannot add additional sections and extend judicially custody by just submitting a mere letter to the judge without fresh remand papers. That is the court held that the submission of remand reports without the knowledge of the accused to seek extension of remand period more than the prescribed period under section 167 of CRPC with the addition of new sections is not a bare formality in serious offences. The court must pass a speaking order by hearing both sides in such cases.
Khiran Kharat and Deepthi Kharat induced the complainant to invest some money in global digital currency for outstanding returns. The complainant claimed that he invested a large sum of money and the value of cryptocurrency was far less than assured price by the Kharat family. On February 3rd 2023 the accused were arrested. The remand period was till 17th February 2023 and their bail applications were rejected on 4th April 2023. The remand was extended regularly after 14 days. On march 31st 2023 the investigating officer wrote a letter to the additional judge seeking a 30days extension to submit the chargesheets as two more sections IPC 406 and 409 had been added in the crime. The court can extend the judicial custody upto 90 days if the investigating offence is punishable with death, life imprisonment and 10 years of imprisonment. Judicially custody can be extended to 60 days otherwise. The accused is entitled to default bail if the charge sheet is not filed within this period.
The question in this present case was whether a mere letter to the judge adding section 409 of IPC [which is an offence punishable with 10 years of imprisonment] result in the automatic extension of judicial custody to 90 days. The court in this case held that a fresh remand report is needed to extend the custody as the sessions court must have examined the reports produced before. The prosecution did not produce any material that shows that the accused falls below the seven categories under section 409.
Name: Krishnapriya, Sem:3rd Sem BBA.LLB, College: Government law college Thrissur intern under legal vidhiya
