SC orders immediate release of Delhi lawyer arrested by Haryana STF

The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered immediate release of advocate Vikram Singh arrested by the Special Task Force (STF), Gurugram of the Haryana Police.

A three-judge Bench led by Bench led by Chief Justice BR Gavai ordered that advocate Vikram Singh to be released forthwith on a personal bail bond in the sum of Rs 10,000 after senior counsel Vikas Singh submitted that he was arrested just because he represented a gangster in a criminal case.

“This way every lawyer representing a client in a criminal case would be susceptible to arrest,” Singh argued.

The Bench directed the Supreme Court Registry to communicate the order to the Commissioner of Police, Gurugram immediately.

Issuing notice to the Haryana Police, the Delhi Government and the Bar Council of India on advocate Vikram Singh’s petition challenging his arrest, the Bench posted the matter for hearing after a week.

Apart from his immediate release, the petitioner has sought a judicial probe into the alleged illegal actions of the STF, Gurugram in Haryana.

He has also sought a direction to quash “all criminal proceedings instituted against the petitioner in connection with FIR No…registered at Police Station Sector–8, Faridabad, Haryana under Sections 302, 34 IPC and Section 25 of the Arms Act.”

Singh, an advocate enrolled with the Bar Council of Delhi since July 2019, was arrested on October 31 allegedly without written grounds of arrest or independent witnesses, in violation of Articles 21 and 22 of the Constitution. He is presently lodged in Faridabad Jail.

A trial court at Faridabad on November 1 remanded him to judicial custody for 14 days by a mechanical and non-speaking order, devoid of any reasoning or material connecting him to alleged offences, the petition submitted.

On November 6, the Coordination Committee of District Court Bar Associations in Delhi abstained from work in all district courts against alleged false implication of Singh in a murder case.

“In the course of his professional duties, the petitioner has represented several clients in criminal cases between 2021 and 2025, including persons alleged to have connections with one Kapil Sangwan @ ‘Nandu’. All such representations were undertaken purely in the discharge of his professional obligations and in conformity with the Advocates Act and the standards of professional ethics.

“However, instead of respecting the independence of the Bar, the investigating agency has sought to criminalise the petitioner’s professional association with his clients, thereby undermining the rule of law and the sanctity of the advocate–client relationship,” the plea said.

The lawyer was targeted after filing an application before a court alleging custodial assault on one of his clients, Jyoti Prakash alias “Baba,” who reportedly suffered a leg fracture while in STF custody, it said, alleging that “the retaliatory action by the investigating agency culminated in my illegal arrest.”