Prayagraj, Oct 11: Allahabad High Court has awarded Rs 40,000 compensation be recovered from the salaries of the police personnel responsible for the detention to a man who was kept at a police station for four days in connection with a case against his brother, holding that police cannot unlawfully detain an innocent family member to pressure an accused to surrender.
Why was the man kept at the police station? According to the court order, the case arose from an FIR registered at George Town police station in Prayagraj under several provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, including Section 109, which deals with attempt to murder.
The accused was the brother of the man who approached the high court and had later been granted anticipatory bail. The petitioner's counsel told the court that the man was taken from his home in Jaunpur to George Town police station on June 23 and released only around 7pm on June 26.
The police did not dispute that he had been brought to the station during this period. The investigating officer, told the court that he and other police personnel had gone to the man's house on the instructions of the station house officer and picked him up for interrogation in connection with the case.
The bench of Justice Atul Sreedharan and Justice Divesh Chandra Samant had directed the investigating officer to produce the man's call detail records to establish his location between June 23 and June 26.
The CDR showed his location at Badlapur in Jaunpur early on June 23, followed by locations in Prayagraj. At 7.56am, his phone location was shown at George Town, where the police station was situated.
His phone was switched off from 12.11pm on June 23 until 8.08am on June 27. The court also examined CCTV footage, which corroborated his presence at the police station from June 23 to June 25.
Although no CCTV footage for June 26 was produced, the court found that the material established that he remained in police custody for at least four days.
The court held that the man was not involved in the offence and was kept at the police station to put pressure on his brother to surrender. It appears that, although the petitioner/corpus was not involved in the aforesaid offence, he was kept at the police station in order to bring pressure upon the accused in the aforementioned case to compel him to surrender before the police.
The bench said police could not use such pressure tactics against an innocent family member who had no connection with the alleged offence. The police cannot resort to pressure tactics to compel the actual offender to surrender before it by unlawfully detaining an innocent member of his family who has no connection with the alleged offence.
It said such detention amounted to unlawful deprivation of liberty and entitled the person to compensation following it Court awarded Rs 40,000 compensation to the man.
Ordered that the compensation be recovered from the salaries of the police personnel responsible for the illegal detention.
Court further directed to convey the court's displeasure with the Station House Officer and Investigating Officer be recorded in their respective service records.
The court then disposed of the habeas corpus petition.
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