Lawyer alleges illegal detention, sexual assault; SC issues notice

The Supreme Court has issued notice to the Centre on a plea by a lady advocate alleging illegal detention and custodial sexual assault by Noida police. The court has directed authorities to preserve CCTV footage from the police station.

SC Issues Notice on Lawyer's Plea

The Supreme Court has issued notice to the Centre, seeking response on a plea filed by a lady Advocate who alleged that she was illegally detained by police officials at Noida Sector 126 Police Station, for a period of fourteen hours on the night of December 13, solely for discharging her professional duty as a lawyer towards her client. The petitioner-advocate has also alleged that she was subjected to custodial sexual assault, torture and coercion by the police while they blocked the CCTV cameras located at the Station premises.

After hearing arguments on behalf of the petitioner, a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and N.V. Anjaria agreed to examine the matter and listed it for the next hearing on January 7. Senior Advocate Vikas Singh appeared for the petitioner and argued that there has been a surge in such instances where police illegally nab lawyers for giving legal advice, representation or discharging other duties as advocates for clients. The senior counsel also addressed that the top court has already initiated a suo moto case on the proper functioning of CCTV cameras in all Police Stations across the country, following an incident of custodial torture that took place at a police station in Rajasthan. Noting that generally the Supreme Court does not entertain such pleas and dismisses them with granting liberty to the petitioner to approach the jurisdictional High Court at first instance, the bench made an exception by agreeing to examine the matter, considering that there are serious allegations involved in it.

Details of the Alleged Incident

On 3 December 2025, at around 10:00 pm, the petitioner-advocate was urgently contacted by her client, who had allegedly suffered a brutal physical assault orchestrated by an official of a News channel along with several other co-accused persons. The client had sustained multiple serious head and bodily injuries, was profusely bleeding and was medically examined at a government hospital, which issued a Medico-Legal Certificate confirming multiple injuries. Despite the existence of medical and electronic evidence, the police at Noida Sector 126 police station allegedly refused to register an FIR when the petitioner reached the police station around 11:30 pm to insist on compliance with the mandatory procedure for recording a cognisable offence. Instead, the police allegedly acted in collusion with the accused persons.

When the petitioner attempted to seek emergency assistance by calling PCR 112, senior police officers allegedly ordered a lockdown of the police station. From about 12:30 am on 4 December 2025 until approximately 2:00 pm the same day, the police wrongfully restrained and detained the petitioner and her client inside the police station without any arrest memo, written grounds, judicial authorisation, or compliance with constitutional and statutory safeguards.

Allegations of Custodial Assault and Coercion

During this period, the police allegedly denied the petitioner access to legal aid or communication with her family and subjected her to verbal abuse, intimidation and threats, despite her being a woman advocate. The petitioner further alleges that male police personnel subjected her to custodial sexual assault, molestation and threats of sexual violence, including tearing her advocate's coat, forcibly searching her body and issuing life-threatening threats at gunpoint to coerce disclosure of her mobile phone password. The police allegedly initiated illegal preventive proceedings and forced the execution of a personal bond as a pressure tactic to prevent registration of the assault complaint.

The following morning, after the police allegedly compelled the client to withdraw his complaint under coercion, the petitioner was released, which, according to her, demonstrates a pre-planned conspiracy between the police officials and the influential accused to suppress the complaint and abuse state power in violation of her fundamental rights under Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution.

Petitioner Seeks Probe, SC Orders Preservation of Evidence

Thus, the petitioner seeks the Court to direct the Director General of Police (DGP) of Uttar Pradesh to register an FIR against police officials, the ACP and the SHO of the police station in Sector 126 in Noida and issue immediate suspension of the said officials. She also sought that the Court hand over the probe to a SIT (Special Investigation Team) or the CBI. Apart from issuing notice in the matter, the Court in its order also directed the DCP of Noida to immediately ensure that the CCTV footage from the police station be extracted and kept in a sealed pack. (ANI)

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Asianet Newsable English staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)