India, June 28 -- The Bombay high court (HC) has declared the arrest of a 58-year-old Pune resident illegal after finding that he was not produced before a magistrate within 24 hours of being apprehended - a violation of both constitutional and statutory safeguards.

A division bench of justice Mahesh Sonak and justice Valmiki Menezes ruled on Friday that Hanumant Nazirkar's arrest, though formally recorded much later, effectively began at 1pm on October 25, 2024, when Baramati police picked him up from Pune's Shivajinagar metro station.

Nazirkar and his wife had been booked by the Baramati Taluka police in connection with a March 3, 2023 complaint accusing them and others of cheating the complainant of Rs.3.37 crore. His plea for antici...