Ludhiana, Dec. 22 -- In a major embarrassment to the Ludhiana police, a local court on Sunday ordered the release of Congress leader Inderjit Singh Indi, terming his arrest illegal and pointing to serious procedural lapses by the police. Indi, a close associate of former cabinet minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu and husband of ward 61 Congress councillor Parminder Kaur, was arrested by the division number 8 police on charges of attempted murder and obstructing a municipal employee from performing official duty.

Advocate Vijay Mahendru, appearing for Indi, told the court that the police picked him up from his residence at 9.56 am on Saturday, a moment captured on CCTV. However, as per the FIR itself, the police received information about the a...