'Arrest of women before sunrise, after sunset illegal'

Jaipur, Feb 3: In a significant judgement, the Rajasthan High Court has termed the arrest of a woman after sunset and before sunrise as ''illegal''.

Justice Dalip Singh gave the verdict after hearing the petition of of a woman whose husband had filed an application for the custody of their two daughters.

The court reaffirmed the earlier ruling of a stay on the FIR investigations and arrest of the woman and sought a reply from the state government and Sevar jail authorities in this regard.

Petitioner's counsel Dharamveer Tolia and Prem Dewenda told the court that petitioner Dharmawati Devi's husband Satish Chandra had filed an application in January 2005 at a court in Churu for the custody of his daughters Puja and Aarti.

But Dharmawati Devi obtained a stay order against it from the Jodhpur High Court.

Satish Chandra along with his brother and police reached Dharmawati's house on April 18, 2005 at around 2030 hrs with a search warrant.

However, on showing the stay order, the police could not do anything but lodged a complaint against Dharmawati for obstructing official work and damaging the wireless antenna of the police jeep.

A petition was produced in the court in this regard.

UNI