People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) has strongly condemned of the conduct of the Bihar Police, in particular the SHO, Gandhi Maidan Police Station, in connection with the illegal detention and mistreatment of Akash Keshav, Advocate, Patna High Court and Vrati Kumar, law graduate from Calcutta University, social worker, and independent filmmaker/director, both members of PUCL, on the July 26-27, 2026. At times, advocate Akash Keshav has assisted the Patna High Court as Amicus Curiae in the past.
In its meeting held on July 26, 2026, PUCL decided to extend legal support to students who had been detained or arrested by the police in connection with NEET student protests. Both Akash Keshav and Vrati Kumar were part of PUCL’s legal support group. On the night of Sunday, July 26, 2026, when they reached the Gandhi Maidan Police Station to ascertain the status and welfare of the detained students, they were informed that the detainees were being produced before Ms. Arti Upadhyay, the Sub Divisional Judicial Magistrate (SDJM) at Chhajju Bagh. Then they reached the Chhajju Bagh residence/court of the SDJM.
Inside SDJM’s residence/court at Chhajju Bagh
At the outset both the advocates observed the proceedings of the open court for a while. When they found that the students were being sent to judicial custody without following due process, they raised their objection with the court. None of the students was informed of the specific charges against them. They were not provided with copies of the First Information Report (FIR), which violated their basic legal rights. Advocate Akash Keshav, who was in his proper lawyer’s robes, asked for copies of the FIR to be furnished to the detainees, that their statements be duly recorded, and that the court proceedings be recorded. These objections and demands were met with hostility from police personnel and persons in plain clothes present in the courtroom. The SHO of Gandhi Maidan Police Station, Akhilesh Kumar Mishra, declared, in a vindictive manner, that since he had been injured during the protest, all students produced before the Ms. Aarti Upadhyaya, SDJM must be sent to jail as a punishment. Advocate Akash pleaded that despite his sympathy with the SHO for having sustained injuries during the student protest, that could not become the basis for collective punishment of the students presented before the SDJM.
Police refuses to share copy of FIR based on flawed breath analyser test
Unmindful of the fact that provisions of Sections 37 of the Bihar Prohibition and Excise Act, 2016 deals with such accused who were caught drinking but were not involved in liquor trading/smuggling, not with advocates defending their clients, the police misused these provisions. The amended Section 37 provides that in case, a person only consuming the liquor he/she is liable to be arrested immediately and produced before the nearest Executive Magistrate and can be released on payment of penalty. Failure to pay the penalty would invite simple imprisonment for one month.
PUCL has learnt that when advocate Akash Keshav, persisted in making submissions on behalf of the detained students, police officers reportedly turned aggressive and physically cornered advocate Akash Keshav, Vrati Kumar, and other advocates present. The SHO of Gandhi Maidan Police Station threatened to prosecute Akash Keshav unless he stopped raising objections on behalf of students. When they did not give in, he ordered the premises doors locked, and—without any direction or permission from the Magistrate — arranged for a breath analyser and compelled both Akash Keshav and Vrati Kumar to undergo the test on the spot, without the device being calibrated or tested and, subsequently, without any blood or urine confirmatory test being conducted. On the strength of this breath analyser reading alone, both Akash Keshav and Vrati Kumar were taken into custody by the SHO, Gandhi Maidan, while denying their production before the presiding Magistrate, and whisked them off to the Kotwali Police Station, where they were held overnight.
The SHO, Gandhi Maidan, with the help of a staff member, himself prepared the arrest memo at Kotwali Police Station and asked Akash Keshav and Vrati Kumar to sign it. When they demanded a copy of the FIR, the police refused to share a copy of FIR with the advocates. It clearly establishes that the police officers had adopted undue process and implicated the two members, of PUCL, a defender of human rights, in a false case.
Unprecedented illegitimate handcuffing of advocates
The next morning, on July 27, the advocates were taken to a nearby hospital in the lhandcuffs for examination and declared fit, and thereafter brought back into custody. Even at the hospital, their urine and blood samples were not taken. Despite repeated requests for removal of the handcuffs, they were paraded in handcuffs, first within the police station, then at the Hospital and later, at around 2 PM, through the premises of Patna Civil Court, in full public view — a practice contrary to established guidelines of the Supreme Court and Hon’ble High Court on the use of handcuffs, which permit their use only in exceptional circumstances and never routinely or to humiliate an accused. The handcuffs were removed only after members of the legal fraternity present at the court premises intervened and objected.
Both Akash Keshav and Vrati Kumar were thereafter produced before the Special Judge (Excise). Upon hearing the arguments of the Public Prosecutor and advocates for Akash Keshav and Vrati Kumar, the learned judge released them on Personal Recognisance (PR) Bond and reprimanded the Investigating Officer (IO) of the Kotwali Police Station for handcuffing them.
Reporters misled by unauthorised persons to malign advocates' reputation
PUCL has noted that after the release of the advocates, the police released the arrest-memo photographs of Akash Keshav and Vrati Kumar to the media. The SHO, Kotwali Police Station, gave statements to the print, electronic and social media, resulting in newspaper reports and videos that portrayed them as having been intoxicated and having misbehaved with a lady judicial officer. The reporters were misled by unauthorised persons in order to malign advocates' reputation. The advocates were performing the legitimate duty of safeguarding the legal rights of young detainees, and to deflect attention from the violations of the due process of law by the police during the proceedings of the court.
It has pointed out that every detainee, including minors and students, is entitled under law to be informed of the charges against them and to be furnished a copy of the FIR without delay. No police officer has the authority to detain, coerce, or intimidate an advocate or a social worker for making legitimate submissions in open court on behalf of detained persons. In a travesty of justice, where section 132 of the BNS should have been imposed on the SHO, Gandhi Maidan, for obstructing an officer of the court (in this case, advocate Akash Keshav) from discharging his duty, it was advocate Akash Keshav and Vrati Kumar who were victimised by the police. The use of a breath analyser or any other test on a citizen, without the permission of the court within its premises and without following due procedure (including calibration and confirmatory testing), and the consequent detention on that sole basis, is wholly illegal.The parading of any person in handcuffs through public places, absent the specific circumstances recognised in law, is a violation of binding judicial guidelines and an affront to human dignity. The release of their photograph and a one-sided, unverified narrative to the media by the police was deliberately done to prejudice public opinion against them. It violates not only procedural propriety but also the person’s right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty.
There is a compelling reason for quashing the FIR filed against the advocates. An independent inquiry, preferably under the supervision of the Patna High Court, should be instituted to inquire into the conduct of the SHO, Gandhi Maidan Police Station, and other police personnel involved in the incident that occurred on the night of the July 26. There is a need for strict action against the erring officers for illegal detention, coercive testing without judicial sanction, unauthorised use of handcuffs, leaking photos, giving irresponsible statements to the media, and mental harassment of the advocates.
As a consequence of of the misuse of the provisions under the Bihar Prohibition and Excise Act, 2016, Patna High Court is crowded by bail applications to the extent that at some stage 16 judges of the High Court were hearing bail matters and prosecutions under the Excise Act. In Sudhir Kumar Yadav @ Sudhir Singh @ Sudhir Kumar vs. State of Bihar, Supreme Court observed:"What is of utmost concern to us is the legislative impact study which ought to have been undertaken before implementing the law as every law has an impact in terms of the litigation it generates and there has to be an analysis and arrangements made to tackle those consequences before a law is brought into force".
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