ORDER

Per: Pradeep Mittal J.

Since these three writ petitions arise out of a common set of facts, involve identical questions and have proceeded together on every preceding date before this Court, they are being disposed of by this common order, with Writ Petition No.14955/2026 being treated as the leading petition.

2. These petitions under Article 226 of the Constitution of India were instituted seeking issuance of a writ of Habeas Corpus for production and release of Bilal Khan, Nikhil Prajapati alias Atul Prajapati and Inam Ahmed, respectively, on the allegation that the said three persons had been illegally taken into custody by the officials of Police Station Cyber Crime, Bhopal in the intervening night of 19.04.2026/20.04.2026 and on the morning of 20.04.2026, without disclosure of grounds of detention, without registration of any offence and without preparation of any arrest memo, and were thereafter handed over to the police officials of the State of Rajasthan without formal arrest, transit remand or compliance with the statutory safeguards governing inter State transfer of an accused, in violation of Articles 21 and 22 of the Constitution of India. It was the specific case of the petitioners that the alleged detenus had merely forwarded, on certain WhatsApp groups, a social media post already in wide circulation, and that this act, without more, could not have justified their forcible detention.

3. Vide order dated 22.04.2026, taking note of the allegations and the admitted position that the corpus had remained with the Madhya Pradesh Police before being taken to Rajasthan, this Court impleaded the State of Rajasthan and the concerned Rajasthan Police officials, issued notice, directed production of the corpus, called for a report from the Commissioner of Police, Bhopal, and directed production of the CCTV footage of the Police Transport Research Institute, Jahangirabad, Bhopal for the relevant period. On 27.04.2026, upon being informed that the corpus had already been remanded to judicial custody at Jaipur and could not be produced, this Court directed the Rajasthan Police to produce the corpus on the next date along with an officer conversant with the facts and all relevant documents, and further directed the State of Madhya Pradesh to produce the CCTV footage after reconciling the discrepancy in its time stamp. On 29.04.2026, the corpus were produced before the Court. The State of Rajasthan took the stand that the corpus had not been arrested in Madhya Pradesh and were formally arrested only on 22.04.2026 at Jaipur, and were thereafter produced before the competent Magistrate and remanded to custody, and that they had already been granted bail and were awaiting compliance of the bail conditions. Since the corpus disputed the versions of both the Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan Police, this Court directed recording of their separate statements through the Chief Judicial Magistrate regarding the sequence of events from the time they were first contacted by the Madhya Pradesh Police until their production before the Magistrate at Jaipur, and further directed the concerned officers of both States to file detailed affidavits explaining the entire sequence of events.

4. The statements so recorded were placed before this Court in a sealed cover and were perused vide order dated 12.05.2026. Upon such perusal, this Court found that the statements prima facie disclosed a case of illegal detention, and accordingly directed the Commissioner of Police, Bhopal to treat the said statements as