Misba Naaz And Another vs State Of U.P. And 4 Others

HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD
HABEAS CORPUS WRIT PETITION No. - 1538 of 2026
Petitioner ‘X’ and another
…..Petitioner(s)
Versus
State of U.P. and 4 others
…..Respondent(s)
Counsel for Petitioner(s) : P.k. Singh
Counsel for
Respondent(s)
: G.A.
Court No. - 42
HON'BLE ATUL SREEDHARAN, J.
HON'BLE ACHAL SACHDEV, J.
1. Heard Sri P.K. Singh, learned counsel for the
petitioners and learned counsel for the State.
2. Petitioner no.1 is the daughter of the corpus who is
petitioner no.2. According to whom, petitioner no.2 was
kept under illegal detention from 05.09.2026 while his
official arrest / formal arrest has been shown on
07.09.2026. 
3. As per the contention put forth by learned counsel for
the petitioners and averments in the petition, petitioner
no.1 is a student pursuing the chartered accountancy. In

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HABC No. - 1538 of 2026
the year 2023, petitioner no.1 while studying as a
student in class 12th, came in the contact with one
Shahbaz son of Alladiya, resident of Village Bhaguwala
and Aman son of Naeem, resident of Village Jatpura,
under Police Station Mandawali, District Bijnor. Petitioner
no.1 was known to the aforesaid persons as they had
studied in Shreya Public School, Rahatpur and used to
visit her school. 
4. Shahbaz is stated to be related to petitioner no.1 from
her father's side and taking advantage of the said
relationship, he allegedly induced petitioner no.1 to
accompany him to the hotel on the pretext of having
food. However, it is further alleged that petitioner no.1
was given food mixed with intoxicants and taking
advantage of the same, Shahbaz is stated to have
sexually assaulted petitioner no.1 and also alleged to
have prepared obscene photographgs/video of the
incident. 
5. Despite the intervention of the family of petitioner
no.1, Shahbaz is stated to have been belligerent and
refused to delete the obscene photographs. On
26.06.2026 at about 8:00 pm, Shahbaz along with 8-10
other persons came near the house of the petitioners

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HABC No. - 1538 of 2026
allegedly armed with Lathi, sticks and countrymade
firearms and abused and threatened the family members.
After the said incident, petitioner no.2 herein submitted
an application to the SHO, Police Station Mandawali,
District Bijnor and Circle Officer, Najibabad and requested
legal action against the persons mentioned in the
complaint but no action was taken. 
6. As the alleged counterblast on 29.06.2026, Shahbaz is
stated to have lodged the first information report as
Crime No.71 of 2026 at Police Station Mandawali, District
Bijnor for offences under Sections 115(2), 352 and 351
(2) of the BNS against petitioner no.2 and other family
members. On 08.07.2026, petitioner no.1 is stated to
have lodged the first information report as Crime No.77
of 2026 at Police Station Mandawali, which was
transferred to Police Station Nangal (as so stated by
learned counsel for the State). The third first information
report was registered by one Mohd. Ahsan as Crime
No.706 of 2026 on 06.10.2026 against petitioner no.2
and certain other persons alleging honey trap by
petitioner no.2. It is the last first information report which
is Crime No.706 of 2026 with which this case is
concerned.

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HABC No. - 1538 of 2026
7. According to the petitioners, they were called to Police
Station Nangal and they went to Police Station Nangal, at
about 2:30 pm on 05.09.2026 by car as stated in
paragraph no.23 of the petition. They contacted the SHO
from vehicle. On that very moment, a white Bolero
vehicle U.P. 20 AG 0290 entered the premises near the
gate of the Police Station and four persons came out of
the vehicle. The said persons surrounded the vehicle of
the petitioners and forcibly took petitioner no.2 – Afzal
Ahmad out of the vehicle.
8. Thereafter, the allegation is that petitioner no.2 was
taken away by police personnel / SOG in civil dress and
the person accompanying petitioner no.2 whose name is
Farman, attempted to record the incident on his mobile
phone but he was stopped by the said officials. Farman is
stated to have immediately contacted emergency services
- UP 112 and informed the police authorities about
forcible taking away of petitioner no.2 from outside Police
Station Nangal.
9. Subsequently, the formal arrest of petitioner no.2 was
shown on 07.09.2026. In order to ascertain the veracity
of the same, this Court vide order dated 13.10.2026 had
directed the State to call for CCTV recordings of Police

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HABC No. - 1538 of 2026
Station from 05.09.2026 at 1:00 pm till 07.09.2026 at
10:00 am. Today, when the matter is listed before this
Court, learned counsel for the State-respondents has
informed the Court that the CCTV footage as required of
by this Court from 05.09.2026 is not available on account
of the incident that took place at Police Station on
05.09.2026 itself.  
10. In order to substantiate his contention, learned
counsel for the State has referred to page no.14 of the
affidavit of Ms. Annu Kumari who is presently posted as
SHO, Police Station Nangal, District Bijnor, which is
general diary entry bearing no.20, dated 05.09.2026 at
13:03 hours, which is reproduced hereinbelow:

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HABC No. - 1538 of 2026
From the same what is reflected by the said general diary
entry is that on 05.09.2026, there was a thunderstorm
and CCTV system was affected as water is stated to have
trickled down the lan cable into CCTV system resulting in
the CCTV malfunctioning as a result of which the entire
CCTV system at Police Station failed. 
11. The situation that exists in the State of Uttar Pradesh
relating to the civil liberty is shameful, to say the least.
The police appear to have little regard for the
fundamental rights and civil liberties of citizens, and the
infringement of these rights seems to have become a
matter of routine for the U.P. Police. In case after case
whenever CCTV footages are called for by this Court, in
large majority of the cases, it is the same report which
comes stating that CCTV footage is not available on
account of one reason or other. The overall issue relating
to the failure of CCTV system in the State of Uttar
Pradesh is being dealt with elaborately by this Court in
Habeas Corpus Writ Petition No.1117 of 2026 which has
been reserved for judgment. 
12. The excuse of a CCTV malfunctioning is not available
to the police in a case of unlawful detention. Any
averment to that effect by the respondents concerned is

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HABC No. - 1538 of 2026
sufficient for this Court to hold that the contention of the
petitioners that the corpus was unlawfully detained is
correct and that CCTV footage is deliberately not being
provided to the Court in order to obfuscate the truth
maliciously. The elaboration on this aspect as already
stated hereinabove shall be laid down in Habeas Corpus
Writ Petition No.1117 of 2026. 
13. As the petitioner’s apprehension leading to his formal
arrest is based on unlawful detention from 05.09.2026 to
07.09.2026, the petition succeeds and is allowed.
Petitioner no.2 shall be set at liberty forthwith, if not
wanted in any other case. The petitioners have not
prayed for compensation in this case. However, they are
at liberty to seek compensation by such other avenues
available to them under the law. 
14. As Ms. Annu Kumari, SHO, Police Station Nangal,
District Bijnor has deliberately not provided the CCTV
footage relevant to decide the case on the basis of which
this Court arrives at the presumption that CCTV footage
is against the interest of respondent no.3 and, therefore,
it has been deliberately withheld from this Court, for
which this Court records its displeasure which shall be
entered into her service records and her further

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HABC No. - 1538 of 2026
continuation on the present post should also be
considered by the State.
15. The petitioners have prayed for cost of the petition
which is fixed at Rs.20,000/- which shall be paid by the
State to the petitioners within a period of seven days
from today, failing which the petitioners shall be at liberty
to revive this petition for the purpose of compliance.    
November 03, 2026
rkg
(Achal Sachdev,J.) (Atul Sreedharan,J.)

Digitally signed by :-
RAKESH KUMAR GAUTAM
High Court of Judicature at Allahabad