Police Custody
When following to the receipt of an information/complaint/report by police about a crime, an officer of police arrests the suspect involved in the crime reported, to prevent him from committing the offensive acts further, such officer brings that suspect to police station, it’s called Police Custody.
It is actually the custody of a suspect with the police in a jail at the police station, to detain the suspect. During this detention, the police officer in charge of the case, may interrogate the suspect and this detention is not supposed to be longer than 24 hours.
The officer in charge of the case is required to produce the suspect before the appropriate judge within 24 hours, these 24 hours exclude the time of necessary journey from the police station to the court.
Judicial Custody
Police Custody means that police has the physical custody of the accused while Judicial Custody means an accused is in the custody of the concerned Magistrate.
In Police Custody, the accused is lodged in police station lockup while in Judicial Custody, it is the jail.
When Police takes a person into custody, the Cr.P.C kicks-in and they were produced him/her before a Magistrate within 24 hours of the arrest.
Police Custody and Judicial Custody in CrPC
When a person accused of a cognizable offence is arrested and detained by the police and produced within 24 hours(excluding travelling time from the place of arrest),or he himself surrenders before the nearest Magistrate.
Then the Magistrate can either release him on bail or he can either send him to judicial custody or to police custody.
If the accused is juvenile, his age is to be ascertained and if he finds that he is juvenile, then he be directed to be produced before Juvenile Justice Board.
A suspect under Police Custody or Judicial Custody is assumed to be a suspect.
A suspect becomes a criminal only after the court finds him/her guilty and convicts him/her for the crime reported of.
These types of custodies are preventive measures.
A police officer in charge of a suspect may treat the suspect arbitrarily.
In case of arrests by police and pending the investigation, the lawyer of a suspect generally prays for Bail or Judicial Custody.
In Judicial Custody, suspect becomes responsibility of Court.
During Judicial Custody, the police officer in charge of the case is not allowed to interrogate the suspect.
However, the court may allow the interrogations to be conducted if it opines the interrogation being necessary under the facts produced before the court.
Why in News
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was sent to 14-day judicial custody in connection with the excise policy-linked money laundering case
The FIR in the excise policy case was lodged by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) following allegations of irregularities in formulating and implementing the policy.
After the CBI case, the ED filed a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) 2002, alleging that the money earned through the excise policy was diverted through “hawala” channels for AAP’s campaign for the 2022 Goa elections.
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