Tirunelveli: Five cops to pay Rs 4.5 lakh for torturing man 10 years ago
Chennai: The State Human Rights Commission has directed five police personnel in Tirunelveli district to pay a compensation of Rs 4.5 lakh to a person for torturing him in their custody and for registering a false case against him 10 years ago.
In the petition, S. Abdul Karim and his son M. Syed Mohamed Ali submitted they were running Rabia Medicals and Yasmin Medicals at Palayamkottai.
On July 5, 2008, Nagarajan, Inspector, Vijayakumar, SI, Palayamkottai PS, Tirunelveli. Gurupatham, head constable, Thirugnanam and Arockiasamy, constables, Tirunelveli city crime branch took Abdul Karim in tempo van to armed reserve line ground at Palayamkottai and lodged him in a room. He was beaten severely and also sprinkled chilly powder on his eyes.
He suffered a fracture on his left hand. They, then, took him to some other place and foisted a false cellphone theft case with the help of the SI, Melapalayam, on July 11, 2008. He was remanded to judicial custody and released on bail on July 19, 2008.
In their reply, the cops stated that he took Rs 55,000 from Dr Naresh and Ravichandran regarding leasing of a shop and had not repaid the amount. In order to escape from the crime, S. Abdul Karim filed this false complaint against them.
The cops also denied that they tortured him. He was arrested by Melapalayam police regarding with a theft of cell phone and remanded to judicial custody. They performed their official duty and they had not violated his human rights. The petition was liable to be dismissed, they said.
On perusing oral and documentary evidences, judge D. Jayachandran said the police had not given any valid reasons for the arrest of the complainant and they had violated the norms laid down NHRC and verdict of Supreme Court.
The judge directed the cops to pay Rs 4.5 lakh to Abdul Karim. The commission also recommended the government to initiate disciplinary action against the police and to initiate criminal prosecution against them for filing a false theft case against him.
