JUDGMENT :

(Shampa Sarkar, J.) :

1. The prime concern and endeavour of law should be to secure justice on the basis of truth, which ought to be unearthed through a committed and competent investigating agency.

2. The writ petition is a plea of a mother who alleges that her son Vishal was a victim of police atrocities and was subjected to abuse of power by the police when he was illegally detained in Titagarh Police Station on March 9, 2022. The family lives together in a joint mess.

3. Vishal, is an accused against whom Titagarh Police Station Case No.181 of 2022 dated March 10, 2022 under Section 21(c) of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (in short NDPS Act), was registered. It was alleged that due to political reasons the officers of Titagarh Police Station being hand in gloves with the ruling dispensation in the State of West Bengal, had forcefully taken Vishal into custody, on March 9, 2022. Thereafter, Vishal was falsely implicated in a criminal case on the charge of commission of an offence punishable under the NDPS Act. The FIR was registered on March 10, 2022 at 6.15 hours. Aggrieved by the mala fide exercise of power by the police authority the petitioner approached this Court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, seeking enforcement of the right to personal liberty and dignity guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution. The petitioner, as one of the family members of the victim, was aggrieved by the abuse of powers by the police authority which subjected not only her son but also the family members to indignity, mortification and social embarrassment on account of the alleged wrongful confinement of Vishal by implicating Vishal in a false criminal case.

4. The petitioner approached the Court with prayers for investigation by an independent agency beyond the control of the State of West Bengal, for a court monitored investigation of the NDPS case and for seizure and preservation of CCTV footages of Titagarh Police Station dated March 9, 2022 and March 10, 2022. Further prayer for quashing Titagarh Police Station Case No.181 of 2022 dated March 10, 2022, had also been made.

5. The allegations of deprivation of the right to dignity, personal liberty and denial of a free and fair investigation, are the issues for adjudication by this Court.

6. In the matter of Bhagalpur Blinding case [Khatri (II) v. State of Bihar, reported in1981 Cri LJ 597], speaking for the bench, Bhagwati J., while considering the relief that could be granted by a court for violation of the constitutional rights guaranteed in Article 21, posed the following question:-

“…but if life or personal liberty is violated otherwise than in accordance with such procedure, is the Court helpless to grant relief to the person who has suffered such deprivation? Why should the court not be prepared to forge new tools and devise new remedies for the purpose of vindicating the most precious of the precious fundamental right to life and personal liberty?”

7. The petitioner contented that Vishal’s participation in the municipal elections of 2022 as an election agent of his cousin Rakesh Shukla, a candidate backed by the Indian National Congress, made Vishal a victim of political vendetta. Vishal had been constantly threatened by the police. He was even warned that he would be implicated in a criminal case if he did not withdraw his support for his cousin. After the declaration of the result on March 2, 2022, it was business as usual for all.

8. Suddenly, on March 9, 2022 at about 12.37 p.m., two persons claiming to be officers from Titagarh Police Station went to the jewellery shop owned by the petitioner’s husband (Vishal’s father). Vishal was assisting his father in the family business. The police personnel were not in uniform. They picked up Vishal and took him to Titagarh Police Station in a Mahindra Scorpio Car bearing No. WB24AE4973. Vishal’s father telephoned the Officer-in-charge but he was not provided with any answers. The i