False case: Chemist awarded ₹5 lakh compensation by HC

MANSA CHEMIST SHOP OWNER ASHOK KUMAR JAIN WAS IMPLICATED IN A DRUG CASE BY LOCAL POLICE IN 2013, SPENT FIVE MONTHS IN JAIL

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana high court on Wednesday awarded Rs 5 lakh as compensation to a Mansa chemist, who was implicated in a drug case by the local police in 2013. He remained behind bars for more than five months.

The order was passed by the high court bench of justice RK Jain on the petition of Ashok Kumar Jain, a chemist of Bhikhi in Mansa, against whom an FIR was registered by police on August 10 , 2013, under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.

The recovery of contraband from him was shown at a distant place from Bhikhi, while the police officials had taken him in their custody from his chemist shop. The incident was caught in closed-circuit television cameras, when he was being taken into custody, his lawyer Hari Chand Arora said.

He had approached the high court seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe, following which a special investigation team was constituted to probe the matter.

During the pendency of the case, the SIT found the local police officials had implicated him in the case. After a departmental inquiry, punishment of “forfeiture of two years’ permanent service” was imposed upon them. As many as seven police officials of Bhikhi police station were found involved, as per the petition. These policemen included station house officer Gurdarshan Singh; three assistant sub-inspectors (ASIS), Bhagwant Singh, Jaswant Singh and Balvir Singh; head constable Sukhwinder Singh; and two constables, Karnail Singh and Gurdev Singh, as per the petition.

In 2016, he approached the high court seeking Rs 50 lakh compensation for the mental agony, detention for more than five months, and loss to his reputation and business.

Justice Jain had reserved the judgment on April 4, which was pronounced on Wednesday.

The detailed order is awaited; that will clarify who exactly has to pay the compensation as the petition made the state goverment as well as the cops party to the case.