AURANGABAD: The Aurangabad bench of Bombay High Court has quashed and set aside the order of Aurangabad police commissioner to detain a man under sections 3 (1) and (2) of the Maharashtra Prevention of Dangerous Activities (MPDA) Act, 1981.Balu Vaman Patole (35), a businessman from Wadgaon Kolhati falling under the jurisdiction of Waluj MIDC police station, was detained on October 15, 2018 under the MPDA Act and was sent to Harsul central prison.“Due to the activities of the petitioner, the citizens of adjoining area remained under constant fear and terror. He has become a serious threat and source of danger to the life of law abiding and peace-loving citizens. He has also become threat to a public order,” the police had said.The police also cited cases registered against Patole as well as three complaints lodged by different people who alleged that he had robbed them of a few hundred rupees.Patole had approached the high court through his lawyer Rajendra Sanap challenging the order as well as state government’s confirmation of his detention. Sanap cited that the petitioner was not provided with a reason for detention.The matter came up for hearing before a bench comprising justices TV Nalawade and Mangesh S Patil. The bench noted that “the file produced by the respondents shows that by report dated 8.9.2018 police inspector of MIDC Waluj police station proposed to police commissioner, Aurangabad to issue an order of detention against the petitioner. In this proposal, the aforesaid circumstances were mentioned. This proposal was processed by the assistant commissioner, then deputy commissioner.”It added, “The verification of the statements of aforesaid three people (A, B, C) was done by the deputy commissioner of police on 18.9.2018 and on the same day as per the record, he recommended making an order of preventive detention. His report shows that on the same day, he had visited various places mentioned by these three people to ascertain as to whether the allegations were true. In the file, on first few pages, there are noting of the officers like assistant commissioner and deputy commissioner, but those noting do not bear the dates under their signatures.’’Following arguments, the bench quashed and set aside order of order of detention and also the approval by the state government ordering on March 26 that the petitioner is to be set at liberty forthwith.The bench observed: “After executing the detention order a copy of detention order and grounds of the arrest need to be supplied by the detaining authority to district legal aid services authority of that district within 48 hours of the detention.’’

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