Holding the State Government “vicariously” liable for the June-2012 custodial death of one Kuldeep Mohapatra of Bhubaneswar, the Orissa High Court on Thursday ordered the Government to pay a damage of Rs5 lakh to the family of the victim.
Basing on the reports submitted by the CBI and a local magisterial enquiry, Justice BR Sarangi ordered the compensation to be paid to the victim’s father within four months. Kuldeep’s father Rabindranath Mohapatra had approached the High Court demanding a damage of Rs20 lakh.
Following the death of Kuldeep, the State Government had ordered a magisterial inquiry into it. But the High Court, on a prayer of Rabindranath, in August 2014 had ordered the CBI Superintendent of Police (SP) at Bhubaneswar to submit a report to it after conducting an independent enquiry into the incident.
“Both the inquiries (CBI as well as magisterial) held the Saheed Nagar police of Bhubaneswar responsible for the untimely death of the 27-year-old youth,” informed Rabindranath’s counsel Ranjit Mohanty, who was conducting the case in the High Court.
Kuldeep’s father had alleged that his son was picked up by the Saheed Nagar police on charges of extorting money from public posing as a police officer. But his son was declared dead at the Capital Hospital following custodial torture. Police, however, denied the allegations saying the public had thrashed him mercilessly before police rescued him.
Two policemen of the thana were immediately placed under suspension over the incident because instead of shifting the injured Kuldeep to hospital immediately, the policemen had detained him inside the thana for long and allegedly tortured him.