Chandigarh: The Punjab and Haryana High Court has directed the Punjab government to pay Rs 2 lakh compensation to a man wrongly arrested in an NDPS case after being found in possession of Paracetamol tablets.
The petitioner, who is a resident of Kapurthala, filed a petition in the High Court seeking regular bail in the NDPS case earlier. The person said that he has been falsely implicated in the case as he did not allow a police officer who trying to overtake him from behind.
According to him, when he did not allow the police officer to overtake him, the police took him to custody and booked him under the NDPS Act. The high court viewed police’s conduct as “deeply troubling” and criticised their high-handedness in violating the petitioner’s fundamental rights.
The incident took place on June 24, and an FIR was registered on June 26. The Punjab and Haryana High Court considered the detention of a person arrested under the NDPS Act as torture by the police even after paracetamol was found instead of drugs in the forensic report. The court held that the petitioner was illegally detained by the police and his family members were not informed about the same.
On September 13, the Punjab government submitted the forensic lab report in the High Court, according to which the substance seized from the petitioner was acetaminophen (paracetamol). The High Court had granted regular bail to the petitioner on September 13 after taking view that the person spent two months and 15 days in custody.
'Violation of fundamental rights'
The court said that this is not only a violation of the petitioner's fundamental rights by the police, but also a case of abuse of power. The High Court bench said that the conduct of the accused police officers cannot be ignored as accountability is vital to ensure justice and uphold the rule of law. The court ordered that 50 per cent of this compensation amount should be recovered from the salary of the accused sub-inspector Rajinder Singh. The court also directed the Registrar General to suppress the petitioner's name in the digital record. The DGP of Punjab told the High Court that a cancellation report has been filed in this case.
