128. Arrest - how to be made. - (a) An Officer-in-charge of a police station has no legal power to summon before him any person accused of an offence. The only manner in which he can enforce the attendance of such a person before him is by arrest and without an arrest the attendance or detention of an accused person cannot, under any circumstances, be compelled. It is, therefore, to be understood that, whenever an accused person is sent for and made to attend before an Investigating Officer, he is to be considered as having been arrested, and to be entered in the return accordingly. The manner in which arrest is to be made is described in sections 46 to 48 and section 53 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898 (Act V of 1898). No person who has been arrested may be discharged except on bail or on his own recognizance or under the special orders of a Magistrate.
(b)"Police Custody" includes custody on the authority of the police; every person who is kept in attendance to answer charge in such a way that he is practically deprived of his freedom shall be considered as in custody. A police officer who, without himself arresting a person, directs some of the neighbours to take charge of him, shall be responsible in the same way as if he had made the arrest himself. Requiring a person's attendance by letter and deputing a constable to accompany him with orders to prevent him from speaking to any one amounts to an arrest.
