Uttar Pradesh Police is on the target of the High Court these days. Allahabad High Court is continuously raising questions on the functioning of the police. This time the High Court has ruled to give compensation to a young man for illegally keeping him in custody. Earlier, the High Court had said that the UP Police is not loyal to the Constitution but to the government. That means the police is working at the behest of the government.
Allahabad High Court said that police officers continuously violate the rights of citizens, thinking that their wrongdoings will not go unnoticed. They feel that hardly any citizen out of thousands will approach the court for the protection of their rights. With this strong comment, the bench of Justice JJ Munir and Justice Sanjeev Kumar has ordered to give an interim compensation of Rs 25,000 to a youth.
It is alleged that the youth was kept illegally in police custody (lockup) for 24 hours, allegedly just because of a domestic dispute. While hearing this case, Allahabad High Court Double Bench, while giving its verdict, said that such action by the police is condemnable, hence, it has ordered to pay interim compensation of Rs 25 thousand and case expenses of Rs 10 thousand to the victim Matambar Mishra, resident of Prayagraj.
What was the whole matter?
According to the petitioner, on 26 November 2022, when he returned home from the fields late in the evening, Sub Inspector Surya Prakash Dubey, the then in-charge of a police post, reached his house. After this, he was dragged to the police station without giving any reason. It is alleged that he was kept in lockup for 24 hours and demanded Rs 20,000 in exchange for his release. The police alleged that the entire action was taken on the basis of the domestic violence complaint filed by the petitioner’s brother’s daughter-in-law. Whereas no cognizable crime was registered in this case.
Court reprimanded sub inspector
During the hearing in the High Court, the Sub Inspector said that the petitioner had come to the post on his own volition and wanted to get rid of the domestic dispute between the family. However, the court rejected this argument and said that the police officer is not a religious guru, Panch Parmeshwar or a community leader, to whom people go to the police station voluntarily to resolve family disputes. Later the court also accepted that the sections registered against the petitioner under the Code of Criminal Procedure are illegal. This was used by the police to further their financial interests which is completely baseless and illegal.
case filed wrongly
The bench further said that as a police officer, people were afraid of him. To hide the illegal detention, the police initiated action against the victim under sections 107 and 116 two days after releasing him from illegal detention. The bench took strong objection to this, as it observed that this action is taken primarily to maintain public space and peace and not to satisfy one’s personal interest by getting someone accused of domestic violence.
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