Hyderabad: Coming down heavily on Hyderabad city police for detaining two persons under the Telangana Prevention of Dangerous Activities of Bootleggers, Dacoits, Drug- Offenders, Goondas, Immoral Traffic Offenders and Land Grabbers Act, 1986, the Hyderabad High Court has allowed two petitions by the mother and wife of the detainees and imposed Rs 25,000 in punitive costs the TS government on each petition.
A division bench comprising Justice C.V. Nagarjuna Reddy and Justice M.S.K. Jaiswal, while setting aside the orders detaining Surender Singh and Phool Singh, found that the respondents failed to supply translated copies of the material to them within the statutory period.
B. Mohana Reddy, counsel for the petitioners told the court that the cops supplied the copies of the order in English, when the mother tongue of the detenus is Hindi.
The bench noted that the police authorities inserted the translated copy of the order in Hindi in order to mislead the court. The bench also found that the copies of the order of detention and grounds of detention under PD Act in English language were served on the detenus in the presence of the jailor, Central Prison, Hyderabad, whereas the presence of the jailor was not recorded on the page, which pertains to supply of Hindi copies.
The bench observed that “this conduct on the part of the respondents is abhorrent to say the least. The respondents being the state and the police department are not expected to hoodwink the court by coming out with such a false plea”.
While ordering the government to pay costs the Chief Justice Relief Fund within one month, the bench directed the Hyderabad police commissioner to cause a detailed enquiry, identify the persons responsible for the abominable act and recover the costs from them.
