Reminding the police not to cross the line when it comes to individual liberty, the Supreme Court on Friday set a benchmark by awarding Rs10 lakh compensation to two women who were arrested by the Madhya Pradesh Police in 2012 flouting all set guidelines and laws that made their custody illegal.
The two women a doctor Rini Johar and her septuagenarian lawyer-mother Gulshan Johar are based in Pune. They had approached the apex court challenging their arrest on November 27, 2012 on a complaint filed by a Bhopal resident Vikram Rajput who purchased an aura camera from Rini Johar, the sole distributor of the US-manufactured machine in India.
He had purchased the machine in 2012 after receiving a demo of the product at Pune. But on his return to Bhopal, he alleged fraud against Rini and the product manufacturer and filed a complaint with the Cyber Cell.
The Bhopal Cyber Cell travelled to Pune to arrest Rini Johar and even took into custody her old mother who had no role in the transaction. The lawyer-woman was released on bail after 17 days while Rini Johar was released after more than three weeks.
later she was even discharged from the case. Hurt by the humiliation they had to suffer at the hands of the police and with no sanction from Magistrate while
taking them from Pune to Bhopal, Johars approached the apex court for violation of their fundamental right to live with dignity under Article 21.
The Bench of Justices Dipak Misra and Shiva Kirti Singh concluded that the constitutional principles, procedures and safeguards required before arresting a person were not followed in the present case. No independent witness was present during the arrest and the local Magistrate’s sanction was not taken before taking the duo to Bhopal, the court noted. It finally directed the MP Government to pay a compensation of Rs5 lakh each to both women within three months and quashed all prosecution launched against Rini Johar.
It said, “The officers of the State had played with the liberty of the petitioners and, in a way, experimented with it. law does not countenance such kind of experiments as that causes trauma and pain.”
The MP Government had launched a disciplinary enquiry against the guilty police officials who will still face the heat as the court did not stay the proceedings.
On the other hand, Rini Johar had complained to the State lokayukta against the Deputy Superintendent of Police, Cyber Cell Deepak Thakur for demanding a bribe of Rs five lakh to settle the case. Johar said she paid the amount in two installments to the said officer.
The lokayukta Police made preliminary enquiry on June 18, 2015 and held a prima facie case to be made out against the Deputy SP and three other officials to be tried for corruption charges under Prevention of Corruption Act.