Any superior officer or member of the Dal making an arrest under this Act, shall, without unnecessary delay, make over the person so arrested to a police officer, or, in the absence of a police officer, take such person, or cause him to be taken, to the nearest police station together with a report of the circumstances occasioning the arrest :
Provided that, the person so arrested under this Act shall be produced before the nearest Magistrate within a period of twenty four hours of his arrest under section 12 excluding the time necessary for the journey from the place of arrest to a nearest Police Station and the Court of the Magistrate, and no such person shall be detained in custody beyond the said period without the authority of a Magistrate.