PRAYAGRAJ, Nov. 12 -- The Allahabad high court while disposing of a bunch of petitions filed by hair stylist Jawed Habib and his son, has directed the police not to mechanically arrest the duo till the culmination of the probe. The court passed this order when the counsel for petitioners confined the relief in the petition to grant of protection under Section 41-A CrPC. Section 41A of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) allows the police to issue a "notice of appearance" instead of an immediate arrest for certain offences where an arrest is not required. This notice requires the person to appear before the police officer at a specific time and place to assist with an investigation, and failure to comply can lead to their arrest. A bench of justices Siddhartha Varma Achal Sachdeva passed the order while disposing of a batch of petitions filed by the duo challenging a series of FIRs lodged in district Sambhal and seeking a restraint on their arrest. The bench observed, "It is expected of the police not to harass the petitioners till the conclusion of the investigation in any manner whatsoever." The FIRs, 32 in number, alleged that the father-son duo held a seminar in September 2023, where attendees were encouraged to invest sums ranging from Rs.2 lakh to Rs.20 lakh in a company with assurances of attractive returns. The court refused to quash the FIR and observed, "We have perused the FIR which prima facie discloses cognisable offence and, therefore, the prayer made to quash the FIR otherwise cannot be entertained in view of the law laid down by the Supreme Court in the case of State of Telangana Vs. Habib Abdullah Jellani, (2017) 2 SCC 779 and Neeharika Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd. vs. State of Maharashtra and Others, (2021) SCC Online SC 315."...