Chattisgarh High Court
Kalibai Tiwari vs State Of Chhattisgarh on 29 July, 2024
Author: Ramesh Sinha
Bench: Ramesh Sinha
1
NAFR
HIGH COURT OF CHHATTISGARH, BILASPUR
WPCR No. 53 of 2020
1. Kalibai Tiwari W/o Late Shri Chandrika Prasad Tiwari Aged About
55 Years Occupation - House Wife, R/o Village Kumhari Police
Station Marwahi, Bilaspur Chhattisgarh., District : Bilaspur,
Chhattisgarh
2. Dinesh Tiwari S/o Late Shri Chandrika Prasad Tiwari Aged About 38
Years Occupation Agriculture R/o Village Kumhari, Police Station
Marwahi, Bilaspur Chhattisgarh., District : Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh
---- Petitioners
Versus
1. State Of Chhattisgarh Through Its Principal Secretary, Department
Of Home Affairs, Dks Bhawan, Mantralaya, New Raipur., District :
Raipur, Chhattisgarh
2. Director General Of Police Raipur Chhattisgarh., District : Raipur,
Chhattisgarh
3. Superintendent Of Police District Bilaspur Chhattisgarh., District :
Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh
4. The Then Station Incharge T.I. Ekka Thana Marwahi, District
Bilaspur Chhattisgarh., District : Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh
5. The Then Tehsildar Of Marwahi Tehsil Marwahi, District Bilaspur
Chhattisgarh., District : Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh
---- Respondents
(Cause-title taken from Case Information System) For Petitioners : Mr. Rahul Kumar, Advocate For State/Respondents No.1 to 3 : Mr. Sangharsh Pandey, Govt. Advocate For Respondent No.4 : Mr. Aman Upadhyay, Advocate For Respondent No.5 : Mr. Goutam Khetrapal and Mr. Gourav Singhal, Advocates 2 Hon'ble Shri Ramesh Sinha, Chief Justice Hon'ble Shri Ravindra Kumar Agrawal, Judge Order on Board Per Ramesh Sinha, Chief Justice 29.07.2024
1. Heard Mr. Rahul Kumar, learned counsel for the petitioners. Also heard Mr. Sangharsh Pandey, learned Govt. Advocate for the State/respondents No.1 to 3, Mr. Aman Upadhyay, learned counsel for the respondent No.4, Mr. Goutam Khetrapal and Mr. Gourav Singhal, Advocates for the respondent No.5.
2. In the present writ petition, the relief sought by the petitioners are as follows:
"10.1. That, this Hon'ble Court be pleased to call for the entire records of the case from the concerned Police Station.
10.2. That, the Hon'ble Court be pleased to take appropriate action and direct the police to register the case under Section 302 of IPC act where the charges has been framed only under Section 294, 323 and 506 of IPC act against the aforesaid Police Officer in the FIR which has been annexed herewith as Annexure P-1. 10.3. That, the Hon'ble Court be pleased to take appropriate action and direct the police to register the case under Section 323, 324, 325 of IPC act against the police incharge of the police station Marwahi for illegally detaining and torturing the petitioner No.2 herein, in the interest of justice.
10.4. That, consequently the Hon'ble Court be pleased to grant a compensation of an amount of Rs.25,00,000.00/- (Twenty Five Lakh only) to the 3 family and the widow of the deceased. 10.5. That, consequently the Hon'ble Court be pleased to also grant a compensation of an amount of Rs.15,00,000.00/- (Fifteen lakhs only) to the petitioner No.2 for illegal detention and physical and mental tortured which has been caused by the police authorities.
10.6. That any other relief, including the cost of this petition, as it appears to be fit and appropriate to this Hon'ble Court be granted."
3. The facts of the present case as mentioned in the petition, are that on 07.04.2019, on Tulsi Tiwari and his family members forcefully entered into the house and land of the petitioners against this act, the husband of the petitioner No.1 (the deceased) had made call on police helpline number 112. Thereafter, the patrolling vehicle 112 arrived at the place of incident and instructed to the husband of the petitioner No.1 (deceased) and the family members to come to the police station. At around 06:00 p.m. the petitioner No.1 and her son/petitioner No.2 reached the Police Station - Marwahi and following them the husband of the petitioner No.1 (deceased) also reached the Police Station. The T.l. of the aforesaid Police Station started shouting and abusing bad words saying that the deceased has unnecessarily called 112 which have caused him inconvenience and without any reason the deceased and her son was put behind the bars into the lockup. At around 11:00 p.m. the said T.I came back to the Police Station (Marwahi) in a drunk state 4 started beating and thrashing the petitioner's son with fists and kicks using belt. As the petitioner in state of utter shock saw her son being beaten up she plead to the T.I to stop beating her son in response to which the T.I said abusing words to her and asked her to go back otherwise he would put her too into the cell or behind the bars. Thereafter, T.I. pulled out the deceased (Chandrika Prasad Tiwari) and started beating him angrily with his palms, fists and also kicked wearing hard shoes. The petitioner No.1 tried to stop T.I from beating her husband by stating that her husband was a heart patient but even on her so pleading the T.I went on to continuously assault the deceased physically as well as abusing with filthy language and due to which one of the tooth of the deceased got knocked off and blood started flowing from his mouth seeing the deceased being almost unconscious T.I finally stopped and once again abusing the deceased he asked the other staff to throw the deceased in the hospital next morning. Thereafter on 08/04/2019 at around 12:00 pm for further proceedings under Section 151 of CrPC the petitioner, deceased and their son was sent to the Tehsil Court where they sat for hours and after 4 hours the son of the deceased was watching his father's condition deteriorating in front of the clerk who said that only after coming of the Tehsildar bail proceedings can be started. Ultimately, the deceased fell unconscious in the Tehsil court itself. Due to no timely medical treatment of the deceased for various internal injuries plus 5 a broken tooth along with mental harassment which ultimately led to deterioration in the health of the deceased. After some time the police personal took the deceased to the government hospital Marwahi from where he was asked to take the deceased to Bilaspur, thereafter, both the petitioners first took the deceased to sanatorium and from there they went for Bilaspur, but near Ratanpur, they admitted him in a hospital, where after sometime the deceased was declared dead.
Thereafter the petitioners herein has filed the representation before the Superintendent of Police, Bilaspur and a copy of the same has been given to Additional Superintendent of Police, Bilaspur and S.D.O. Pendraroad, stating that the custodial death of the deceased Chandrika Prasad Tiwari has been committed by the police of Police Station Marwahi and the son of the deceased has been unlawfully detained along with the deceased and was tortured in the police custody which has ultimately led to the death of the deceased and also the fatal injuries has been caused to his son. The copy of representation has been filed herewith as Annexure P-
2. As the detention in police lock-up of a person has caused incalculable loss to the petitioner and not be computed in monetary terms, therefore, they are entitled to get compensation not be less than Rs.25,00,000/- to family of the deceased, for his custodial death on wrongful detention and a compensation of Rs.15,00,000/- to the petitioner No.2 for illegal detention and physical assault as 6 the Hon'ble Supreme Court has awarded appropriate compensation to the persons compelled to face humiliation for wrongful detention in violation of Article 21 of The Constitution of India. Hence, this petition.
4. The learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the petitioner No.1 is wife of the deceased whereas the petitioner No.2 is son of the deceased. It is stated that the husband (deceased) and son (petitioner No.2) of petitioner No.1 were arrested on 07.04.2019 for the offence under Sections 151/107 and 116(3) of CrPC and as per proceedings they were produced before the Tehsildar on 08.04.2019 and while the deceased was waiting in the office of Tehsildar who was not present and at 04:00 p.m. the deceased became unconscious on the Court premises and he was shifted to the hospital from where he was referred to higher center but he die on the way.
The counsel for the petitioner states that as the father of petitioner No.2 and husband of petitioner No.1 has been tortured by adopting the 3rd degree method by the police personals and while waiting in the Court of the Tehsildar due to illness he became unconscious. He was rushed for the medical treatment to the hospital but on the way he died, hence he has come up before this Court for a compensation.
5. Learned counsel for the State as well as the private respondents 7 have submitted that the petitioner No.1 has lodged an FIR against the police personals for offences under Sections 294, 323, 506 of IPC which was registered as case No.35 of 2019 on 09.04.2019. In the said case, the investigation was carried out and the closure report was filed and in the postmortem report it has been submitted that the deceased died on account of cardio respiratory failure and the copy of the closure report has been annexed with reply dated 11.02.2020 of the State as Annexure - R/7 and the petitioner has right to challenge the same before the Magistrate concerned by taking recourse of the said Forum, but the same has not been filed and the petitioner come up before this Court for compensation, which is not in accordance with law.
6. We have heard learned counsel for the parties and perused the records of the case.
7. Section 151 of the CrPC reads as under :-
"1. A police officer knowing of a design to commit any cognizable offence may arrest, without orders from a Magistrate and without a warrant, the person so designing, if it appears to such officer that the commission of the offence cannot be otherwise prevented.
2. No person arrested under Sub-Section (1) shall be detained in custody for a period exceeding twenty-four hours from the time of his arrest unless his further detention is required or authorised under any other provisions of this Code or of any other law for the time being in force.8
8. From bare perusal of Section 151 of the CrPC, it is apparent that the Police can exercise power given in the above section as preventive measure and this Section does not include penal provision.
9. Considering the fact that closure report has already been submitted by the investigating agency and whether the death of the deceased was on account of the atrocities if any, committed by the police personnel has been put to rest by filing the closure report and if the petitioners are aggrieved by the closure report then the petitioners are at liberty to challenge the same before the appropriate forum taking recourse to it, hence, we do not find any good ground for grant of compensation at this stage.
10. With the aforesaid observations, this writ petition is disposed of.
Sd/- Sd/-
(Ravindra Kumar Agrawal) (Ramesh Sinha)
Judge Chief Justice
Ravi Mandavi