The short answer
Being "detained" and being "arrested" are different degrees of the same thing: custody. If you are not free to leave, you are in custody, whatever word the police use. Arrest adds formal consequences — the grounds must be communicated to you forthwith under Section 47 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (BNSS), a person you nominate must be informed about the arrest and where you are being held under Section 48, and you must be produced before the nearest magistrate within 24 hours, excluding necessary journey time, under Article 22(2) of the Constitution and Section 58 of the BNSS.
A label like "we are only holding you" does not remove these safeguards. What matters is the actual restraint and the legal authority behind it. Families should treat every unconfirmed pickup as custody until a lawyer or the court establishes otherwise.
Ask the threshold question
Ask, calmly and clearly: "Am I free to leave?" The answer creates a record of the restraint. If the answer is no, ask which provision the officers are acting under — a preventive power, an FIR, a magistrate's order — and note it down. Do not physically resist or argue the law at the roadside; resistance can become a separate offence and never improves your position.
- 1Ask: "Am I free to leave?" and listen for a clear answer.
- 2Note the exact time and place, and the names, badge numbers or vehicle registration you can safely see.
- 3Ask which provision is being used. A clear answer is part of a lawful process.
- 4Do not resist physically. Preserve the facts; argue them later through a lawyer.
What Section 170 permits
Section 170 of the BNSS (formerly Section 151 of the CrPC) allows a police officer to arrest without a warrant to prevent a cognizable offence, but only when the officer knows of a design to commit it and believes the offence cannot otherwise be prevented. It is a preventive power, not a conviction and not a general power to pick people up.
Section 170 itself does not authorise custody beyond 24 hours. Holding someone longer under it requires another lawfully authorised ground — for example, an FIR naming the person, or a magistrate's order. That is why the first 24 hours are the window in which the authority must be tested.
Rights that arrest switches on
Once the police treat you as arrested, three duties attach. First, Section 47 of the BNSS requires the grounds of arrest to be communicated to you forthwith — promptly, without delay. Second, Section 48 requires the police to inform a relative or friend you nominate about the arrest and the place where you are held, and to record who was informed in the station book. Third, the magistrate before whom you are produced must check that these steps were followed.
Ask for these by name: the written grounds, the arrest memo, and the name of the person informed under Section 48. If any step is skipped, tell your lawyer exactly what was skipped — that is the material the court will look at.
The 24-hour line
Article 22(2) of the Constitution and Section 58 of the BNSS require production before the nearest magistrate within 24 hours of custody, excluding necessary journey time. The journey-time exclusion is part of Article 22 itself, not a police invention.
Crossing 24 hours does not automatically mean release. Continued custody can still be lawful if a magistrate authorises it, or if another legal basis — such as a separate FIR or remand order — supports it. So do not wait for an automatic release; use the time to get a lawyer and the family checklist moving.
What the family should preserve
While the person is held, the family is the evidence team. Keep a single written log — dates, times, exact words used, who said them — and preserve originals of every photo, video and call record.
This is a description of the public process, not legal advice. For advice about your own case, speak to a lawyer or the police station handling it. Save the emergency numbers: 112 (national emergency), NALSA's free legal-aid helpline 15100, and in Delhi the DSLSA helpline 1516.
- Full name and phone number of the person held.
- Last confirmed time, place and clothing.
- Police vehicle number, unit or station details.
- Names of officers spoken to and what each one said.
- Copies of any documents given or signed.
- Medical concerns or injuries, however minor they seem.