Gangster Ravi Kana freed from Banda jail without court order

Noida: Ravi Kana, a scrap tycoon accused by police of building an empire by coercing businesses into giving him contracts and arrested in 2024 after being named in a case under the UP Gangsters and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act, is now a free man. He hasn't been acquitted – the jail in Banda district where he was being held let him go earlier this month, though there was no court order to do so.On Friday, a chief judicial magistrate's court in Noida issued a show-cause notice to the Banda jail superintendent after it was brought to its notice that Kana had been released. Police have started a hunt for him.
"Under what circumstances and on what basis did you release the accused, who was lodged in your jail in another case, without any notice from the court?" CJM Sanjeev kumar Tripathi asked the Banda jail superintendent. It also asked why a case should not be filed against the official for "escape of an accused from custody".The CJM court had issued a B warrant (a directive to move a person already in custody for another legal proceeding) against Ravi Kana so that he could be produced before it in connection with an FIR registered with Dankaur police station in GB Nagar under BNS sections 308(5) (creating fear of injury, specifically death or grievous hurt), 351(2) (criminal intimidation) and 3(5) (common criminal intention). Kana was in a Gautam Budh Nagar jail in connection with other cases against him and was transferred to Banda in Aug 2024 for administrative reasons.Kana was, however, produced on Thursday through a video link from Banda jail. In the evening, he was released. In a letter sent to the Noida court, the jail superintendent informed that due to non-availability of a police guard, Kana had to be presented through a video link. The jailer also offered a convoluted explanation about why Kana was freed. "Release orders were received in all custody warrants available at the jail for the undertrial prisoner," the jailer wrote (meaning Kana had received bail in other cases) "The prisoner was in custody only under B warrant till Jan 29, 2026 and when he was produced through VC, it was not possible to keep him detained in the jail due to non-receipt of custody warrant/advance appearance date. Since no information was received from any medium regarding the custody warrant or the date of further hearing of the subject case, the undertrial prisoner was released from this jail on Jan 29 at 18:39 after informing him about the subject B warrant. Presently, the prisoner is not lodged in this jail," the letter read.Rejecting the explanation, the court said the jail superintendent was aware that Kana was under B warrant and was summoned on an application submitted by the investigating officer for grant of remand. "He was not supposed to be released," the court said.Santosh Kumar, ADCP Central Noida, told TOI on Friday that after receiving the court's order, police had formed five teams to catch Kana. "We conducted several raids at his whereabouts, but he was not present there," he said.Kana was first booked in 2013 in Ghaziabad for dacoity in the Vijay Nagar area. In the next six years, eight more cases were registered against him on charges of extortion, wrongful confinement, cheating, indulging in fights, dacoity and harbouring an offender who escaped from police custody. Two cases — one of them for the gang rape of a woman at the surface parking lot of Gardens Galleria mall – were registered late in 2023. The case under Gangster Act was filed in Jan 2024 at Beta 2 police station. Besides Kana, it named his wife Madhu and 14 others, including Kajal Jha, a close associate.