I cannot imagine how to do THAT "suspiciously"...

[Fairportfan]

Indian court slams police for tea-drinking arrest

An Indian court has reprimanded police for arresting a man they accused of drinking tea in a "suspicious" manner at one of the country's ubiquitous roadside stalls.

Vijay Patil was drinking tea in the western city of Kolhapur in February when he was arrested under Section 151 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which allows an arrest to prevent someone imminently expected to commit a crime.

Police said there was no "satisfactory explanation" for the 49-year-old's tea-drinking behaviour and "found his conduct suspicious", according to the court order seen by AFP on Wednesday.

But Bombay High Court threw out the case earlier this month, describing the police motive as "bewildering".

"We were unaware that the law required anyone to give an explanation for having tea, whether in the morning, noon or night," said Judges G.S. Patel and S.C. Dharmadhikari in the order.

"One might take tea in a variety of ways, not all of them always elegant or delicate, some of them perhaps even noisy. But we know of no way to drink tea 'suspiciously'."

The judges heard that Patil had a large number of criminal cases against him, but they pointed out that he had no convictions - "though even that would not have been justification enough" for his arrest, they said.

Section 151 can only be invoked without an arrest warrant if the person is imminently likely to commit a crime that could not otherwise be prevented, otherwise the detention violates their rights, the judges added.

"The ingestion of a cup that cheers demands no explanation. And while cutting chai is permissible, now even fashionable, cutting corners with the law is not."

"Cutting chai" is an Indian term for a half-cup of sweet and spicy milky tea.

[ActionKermit]

Looks like another villain has been collared by the redoubtable Constable Savage.

[MerchManDan]

Also:

"The ingestion of a cup that cheers demands no explanation."

There are no words to describe how much I love that line.

[shadowinthelight]

I don't know. If their tea was anything like this that might qualify as suspicious.

[NOTDilbert]

Officer: "But, see, the Americans made this movie called Minority Report....."

[DinkyInky]

I love chai tea, it's relaxing. I have both the fully leaded version and Bengal Spice, which is all the herbs and spices, and no actual tea leaves. Both incredibly lovely with Milk. My sister, being the lovely sneak that she is, recently sent me a package of chocolates that were chai milk tea flavoured, knowing that I love milk tea.

The only way I could think of suspicious is if he had been looking odd(probably at the cops that were watching him) at someone.

I got bothered by "campus cops" at my brother's university(I was waiting for my brother to get out of class, and since it was only 90 minutes, I had lunch there) once because I gave a dirty look to a tramp that broke up a good friends marriage(he never did anything, but said tramp insinuated it happened, and wife believed tramp).

I told them to bugger off(note that my mind to mouth filter rarely works when I'm angry), and that I could glower at dirty, lying, manipulative whores any way I felt like, and unless they had concrete proof that I was doing more than having a cappuchino and salad, to move on. They wanted to have a private word, but I allowed it to be public. Long story short, tramp never had lunch at my brothers school again.

So I can totally see how a cop might see a sip of a tasty beverage as being suspicious.

Just my 2cp.