JUDGMENT :

B. Pugalendhi, J.

(Prayer: Petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, to issue a writ of habeas corpus directing the first respondent to produce the body or person of the detenu namely Jeyavelan, S/o.Krishnasamy, aged about 39 years/husband of the petitioner, from the illegal custody of the respondents 2 to 6 before this Court and set him at liberty.)

The petitioner, wife of one Jeyavelan/detenu, filed this petition on 18.05.2020 that her husband is in the illegal detention of the respondents 2 to 6 and prayed for issuing a writ of habeas corpus to produce her husband before this Court from the custody of the respondents 2 to 6 and to set him at liberty.

2. The case of the petitioner is that her husband, Jeyavelan, is an Advocate practicing at Kovilpatti. The sixth respondent is well known to her husband for a long time and due to such friendship, her husband borrowed a sum of Rs.5,00,000/- from him. He is also making regular payment of interest. While so, all of a sudden, on 30.04.2020, a group of policemen, in mufti, had barged into their residence and started to break open the gate at the entrance of their house. They used filthy language and abused her and one of the person in mufti pulled her nighty, as she was holding the grill gate together. They broke open the gate with crowbar and forcibly entered into the house around 11.00 pm and pulled her husband out of the house. Without even bothering that her husband is a Lawyer, the fifth respondent slapped him with hands on the face and chest and started to threaten that he will kill him if he does not return the amount to the sixth respondent.

3. In this regard, the petitioner lodged a complaint before the Kovilpatti East Police Station in the night hours. The lady Sub-Inspector of Police, who was present in the police station, informed her that the police, who came to her house, is from Tenkasi. On 01.05.2020, the petitioner received a phone call from her husband’s mobile number and her husband cried that he has been tortured by the second respondent. On 02.05.2020, the third respondent called her over phone around 12.00 noon that they are coming back along with her husband. They came with a Lawyer and insisted her to give her husband’s Aadhar card, PAN Card, details of their properties and other property documents, etc., and also collected her signature in blank pro notes. On 04.05.2020, the police took the petitioner’s husband to the Sub Registrar’s Office at Kovilpatti for registering a document in favour of the sixth respondent. The Sub Registrar refused to register the document and her husband was dropped in their house.

4. Thereafter, on the next day, her husband was picked up by them from the house, but, he did not return home. Therefore, the petitioner approached this Court for issuing a writ of habeas corpus.

5. Mr.N.Anantha Padmanabhan, learned Counsel for the petitioner submitted that the petitioner’s husband, a practicing Advocate, has been taken forcibly by the second respondent police on 30.04.2020, kept in illegal custody till 04.05.2020 and was found missing from 05.05.2020 afternoon.

6. The matter came up for hearing on 22.05.2020 and this Court was shocked over the manner in which the occurrence was described. Therefore, this Court called the Superintendent of Police, through the virtual hearing and also called the sixth respondent through audio call. The sixth respondent admitted that there are some money transactions and the detenu owe a sum of Rs.30,00,000/- to him, for which, he gave two cheques and those cheques, on presentation, were returned for insufficient funds. When he lodged a complaint, the detenu undertook to execute some documents in favour of him and therefore, he went and waited in the Sub Registrar’s Office at Kovilpatti, but the respondent did not turn up.

7. The Superintendent of Police, who appeared through video call, assured this Court that he would form a special team to trace the whereabouts of the detenu. By