New Delhi, July 16 -- The Delhi High Court has ruled that a person cannot claim immunity from re-arrest merely because their initial arrest was vitiated on procedural grounds.

The re-arrest, if carried out after curing such defects and in accordance with law, is not impermissible, Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma observed while dismissing a petition filed by four alleged members of an organised crime syndicate.

"In criminal law, procedural safeguards are essential to protect liberty, but they cannot be turned into a shield to defeat lawful investigation into heinous crimes," the Court held, underlining that "a lapse by the police in the first arrest does not create a bar against subsequent arrest once the legal requirements are fulfilled."...