The ruling came in a petition filed by Akash Kumar Sahu (30), a law student and hotel operator from Bhilai, who challenged his arrest following a police raid at his licensed hotel in Kohka, Durg district, on September 8, 2025. Police had claimed they were searching for a missing girl.

In its judgment, a Division Bench of Chief Justice Ramesh Sinha and Justice Ravindra Kumar Agrawal held that the arrest was illegal, arbitrary, and unconstitutional. The court ordered the state government to compensate the petitioner within four weeks, while allowing recovery of the amount from the salaries of the guilty officers after departmental inquiry.

According to the petition, police personnel entered the hotel without prior permission, despite guests having submitted valid Aadhaar identification at check-in. Officers allegedly misbehaved with staff, forcibly entered rooms without female police presence, and asked a male-female guest pair to vacate their room. When the hotel staff objected, the manager was allegedly beaten.

Later, police returned to the hotel, accused staff of theft without evidence, ignored CCTV footage, and instead conducted further room searches. The hotel owner was summoned, verbally abused, taken into custody, and later sent to jail without any cognisable offence being registered.

Police, in their defence, claimed Akash Sahu obstructed government work, snatched a vehicle key, and created a law-and-order situation, justifying his detention under Section 170 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).

However, the High Court found that no FIR was registered, and detention based on suspicion and verbal altercation was unlawful. The bench observed that custodial humiliation and mental harassment violate Article 21 of the Constitution, which guarantees the right to life and dignity. The court also noted that the arrest memo itself recorded the petitioner’s statement that he was unaware of the grounds of arrest.

The court further criticised the Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) for mechanically approving judicial custody without applying independent judicial scrutiny, stating that a magistrate must act as a “constitutional sentinel,” not a rubber stamp.

All criminal proceedings against the petitioner were quashed. The court warned that illegal arrests, police excesses, and unlawful remand erode public trust in the criminal justice system. It directed the Home Department Secretary to take concrete steps to sensitise police personnel towards human rights, to prevent recurrence of such incidents.