LAGATAR24 NETWORK
Ranchi, July 5: Eight years after death of a state resident in police custody in Dhanbad, the Jharkhand High Court ordered compensation of Rs 5 lakh to the victim’s wife and directed the state government to take departmental action against the erring police officials.
A single bench of Justice Sanjay Kumar Dwivedi passed the order observing the matter as a “proven case of police brutality” and questioning why the police department did not take departmental action against the responsible police officers.
The court set a deadline of six weeks to disburse the compensation amount. The court has said that if found guilty in this case, the amount should be recovered from the guilty police officers.
The order came after victim Umesh Singh’s wife Babita Devi knocked the door of the high court explaining how her husband was killed in police custody.
She explained that on the instructions of Ghanudih OP in-charge, Harinarayan Ram, Munshi Pawan Singh took her husband into custody in June 2015. When her husband did not return home the next morning, she and other family members searched for him and found his body near Ghanuadih Joria.
She informed the court that her husband’s body sustained multiple injuries, and that he was wearing only his undergarments. She, referring to a video footage, informed the court that her husband’s shirt was found in the lockup of the police station.
She said that she had registered an FIR against the erring police officials but the investigating officer did not record her statement for more than one and a half years. The state government had got the matter investigated by the CID but later exonerated the police officers, she let the court know through her lawyer.
