Madhya Pradesh govt to pay Rs 10 lakh for illegal arrests

Observing that the personal liberty of an individual is sacrosanct and cannot be stifled without following due procedure, the Supreme Court on Friday directed the Madhya Pradesh government to pay Rs 10 lakh as compensation to two women — a doctor and her advocate mother — for their illegal arrest in Pune and taking them handcuffed to Bhopal in a crowded unreserved train compartment in November 2012.

Allowing a writ petition, a bench comprising Justices Dipak Misra and Shiva Kirti Singh also quashed the cheating case filed against the victims, Dr Rini Johar and advocate Gulshan Johar, in connection with the sale of a medical imaging equipment and a laptop to the complainant, Vikram Rajput. Dr Johar was the agent of a medical equipment company.

Writing the judgment, Justice Misra said it is also clear that the liberty of the petitioner was curtailed in violation of law. “The freedom of an individual has its sanctity. When the individual liberty is curtailed in an unlawful manner, the victim is likely to feel more anguished, agonised, shaken, perturbed, disillusioned and emotionally torn. It is an assault on his/her identity. The said identity is sacrosanct under the Constitution. Therefore, for curtailment of liberty, requisite norms are to be followed. Fidelity to statutory safeguards instils faith of the collective in the system...” the judgment said.

It does not require the wisdom of a seer to visualise that for some invisible reason, an attempt has been made to corrode the procedural safeguards which are meant to sustain the sanguinity of liberty,” the judgment said.

The bench said it seemed that the investigating agency had put its sense of accountability to law on the ventilator. “The two ladies have been arrested without following the procedure and put in the compartment of a train without being produced before the local magistrate from Pune to Bhopal. We are compelled to say so as liberty, which is basically the splendour of beauty of life and bliss of growth, cannot be allowed to be frozen in such a contrived winter. That would tantamount to comatosing of liberty which is the strongest pillar of democracy,” it said.

“The officers of the state had played with the liberty of the petitioners and, in a way, experimented with it. Law does not countenance such kind of experiments as that causes trauma and pain. In the case at hand, there has been violation of Article 21 and the petitioners were compelled to face humiliation. They have been treated with an attitude of insensibility. The investigating officers in no circumstances can flout the law with brazen proclivity.”

The bench had appointed advocate Sunil Fernandes as amicus curiae to assist the court in the case arising from the victims’ appeal. In his report, the amicus noted that Ms Gulshan Johar, who is above 70 years old and practising law in the Pune district court for 36 years, was made to lie on the floor of the train in biting cold. It said: “No food or water was provided. No warm clothes were given. The unreserved compartment marked viklang (handicapped) was overcrowded with males and the petitioners could not even go to the bathroom. Dr Rini was bleeding profusely with severe cramps” as her handcuffs were locked to the train window. They had also paid a bribe of Rs 5 lakhs to deputy superintendent of police Deepak Thakur. The bench directed the state to take action against the erring officials.

Case file Rini Johar was the agent of a medical equipment company who was arrested with her mother by the MP police They were taken from Pune to Bhopal in an overcrowded unreserved compartment Dr Johar was bleeding profusely with severe cramps as her handcuffs were locked onto the train window. Her mother, Gulshan Johar, who is above 70 years old and has been practising law in the Pune district court for 36 years, was made to lie on the floor of the train in biting cold