Man kept in ‘illegal custody’ 
Tribune News Service

Sunam (Sangrur), February 3
In an alleged case of human rights violation, a person accused of harassing a woman over the phone was kept in “illegal custody” by the Sunam police for four days. It was only after the high court’s intervention that the accused was freed from police custody.
Sources claimed that on Saturday morning, Rakesh Kumar, son of Norata Ram, a resident of Ward No. 13, Geeta Bhavan Road, here was apprehended by a local police party led by head constable Kewal Singh from near his house on the charge that he used to harass a woman who happened to be his friend’s wife on the phone. They added that after some passerby informed the victim’s family that he had been picked up by police from near his home, the family approached the local police for getting him freed but the police allegedly refused that the victim was in its custody.
The sources further said that the victim, before being picked up by the police, had already applied for anticipatory bail in the local court on Friday but the plea came up for hearing on Monday. They added that the judge of the local court had rejected the bail plea of the accused on the ground that the lawyer of the victim informed the court that he was already in police custody.
The sources added that on Tuesday, Rajeev Kumar, elder brother of victim, filed a writ of haebeas corpus, under Article 226 of the Constitution, with the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which deputed a warrant officer.
They added that warrant officer recovered the victim from the Sunam police station at 6.30 pm on Tuesday after he was allegedly kept in illegal detention for four days.