The Gwalior bench of Madhya Pradesh high court on Friday directed the state’s director general of police (DGP) to pay ₹10 lakh compensation for violating Article 21 (right to personal liberty) of the constitution for wrongful confinement.
The Gwalior police had falsely booked a youth and kept him in custody for eight months for possession of what the police claimed was party drug MDMA.
The youth Mohit Tiwari, along with five others, was arrested on September 6, 2022, under Narcotic-Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act and Arms Act after police seized 720 gm of MDMA drug and a country-made pistol from their possession.
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Hearing a bail petition filed by Tiwari on April 28, a single bench of justice Deepak Kumar Agrawal analysed the forensic report of the substance and found that the samples of the material seized by the police were not MDMA but Urea, a chemical fertilizer and granted bail to Tiwari.
“Right to personal liberty as guaranteed by Article 21 of the Constitution has been violated because of the wrongful act of police. In this situation, this court is of the considered opinion that a sum of Rs.10 lakh should be given to the applicant as compensation for his wrongful confinement,” said the bench.
{{/usCountry}}“Right to personal liberty as guaranteed by Article 21 of the Constitution has been violated because of the wrongful act of police. In this situation, this court is of the considered opinion that a sum of Rs.10 lakh should be given to the applicant as compensation for his wrongful confinement,” said the bench.
{{/usCountry}}The bench further directed the DGP to pay a sum of ₹10 lakh to the applicant by way of compensation for his wrongful confinement within two months times and demanded a compliance report to this effect be submitted in the registry.
“The DGP is free to recover the aforesaid amount from the erring officials. The DGP is also directed to instruct its subordinate officers not to repeat such irregularity in future,” the order from the court stated.
During the bail hearing, Tiwari’s lawyer Sushil Goswami claimed that his client has been falsely implicated in this case, adding that he had been in custody since September last year.
“His personal liberty as guaranteed by the Constitution has been violated by the wrongful act of the police agency. This is a clear abuse of the law,” he added.
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Six, including two females, were arrested by the police from the Morar area on September 6, 2022, claiming that 720 gm of MDMA drugs was recovered from their possession and charged them under Section 50 of the NDPS Act.
The bench sought a forensic report of the recovered drugs, however, the report from the Central Forensic Science Laboratory, Bhopal presented in the court, showed that none of the samples collected from the accused showed the presence of MDMA but it was of Urea.
The court didn’t comment on the merits of the case and released the applicant on bail.