A police officer from Noida faces arrest for releasing an accused from jail despite Supreme Court order

The Supreme Court today refused to keep in suspension the non-bailable warrant or NBW issued against the superintendent of district jail of Gautam Buddh Nagar (Noida) in Uttar Pradesh for releasing an accused from prison despite the Supreme Court order cancelling his bail.

The matter was mentioned before a bench comprising Justices NV Ramana and Ajay Rastogi and the counsel appearing for the jail superintendent said the officer would appear before the court on September 23 as directed by the top court, but the non-bailable warrant should be kept in abeyance till then.

"Let him come (before the court)," the bench said.

The lawyer, while saying that the superintendent had committed a mistake, again urged that the non-bailable warrant be kept in suspension.

"No. Let him appear. Nothing will happen till then. You are admitting that you have violated the order. I am not going to change my order," Justice Ramana said.

Earlier, a bench headed by Justice Ramana had issued the non-bailable warrant against the jail superintendent while admitting a contempt petition filed against him.

The bench had passed the order while hearing a contempt plea filed by a man who had earlier approached the top court challenging the Allahabad High Court order granting bail to the accused in a criminal case.

The top court had in July last year directed the Uttar Pradesh government not to release the accused from jail, if he was still under custody, until further orders. Later, on December 3, 2018, the top court had set aside the high court's order granting bail to the accused.

In his contempt plea, the petitioner has said that after the order in December last year, the jail superintendent sought a new jail custody warrant for the accused from the trial court.

The contempt plea said that without waiting for custody warrant, the jail superintendent released the accused from prison.

The petitioner has alleged that the jail superintendent "willfully, illegally and arbitrarily" released the accused from jail in "total dereliction" of duty despite the Supreme Court's order by which the bail granted to him by the high court was cancelled.

He said that when the trial court concerned came to know that the accused has been released by jail authorities despite the top court order cancelling his bail, the trial judge issued a non-bailable warrant against him but he has not been arrested yet.

The petitioner has alleged that after the accused came out of jail, he had attempted to kill him and the police was not lodging an FIR in the matter.

