(1)When a person apparently under the age of sixteen years is arrested for a non¬ bailable offence and cannot be brought forthwith before a court, the officer-in- charge of the police station to which such person is brought may, in any case and shall unless the offence is one of culpable homicide or is an offence punishable with death of transportation, release him on hail if sufficient security is for the coming unless, for reasons to be recorded in writing, the officer believes that such release would bring him into association with any reputed criminal or expose him to moral danger or that his release would defeat the ends of justice :Provided that where a girl apparently under the age of sixteen years in arrested the officer in charge of a police station who has made the arrest or before whom the girl is brought shall release her at once if any person who is a relative of the girl or a society or institution of the same religious persuasion as the girl, who in his opinion is a sufficient and suitable surety enters into a bond for such sum of money as the officer considers sufficient to produce her before the court or to appear in her stead if required at the police station.
