New Delhi, (Samajweekly) The Supreme Court has asked police officers in Maharashtra to compensate a woman for keeping her in illegal detention despite she being granted interim protection and two weeks to surrender by it.
A bench of Justices S.K. Kaul and A. Amanullah observed that the woman, an accused in a criminal case, got the interim protection on November 17, 2021 and the apex court had granted her two weeks’ to surrender and apply for regular bail.
Expressing discontent with the illegal detention of the woman, the bench noted that the court had given interim protection to the petitioner and despite the same, she was taken into custody.
The petitioner had submitted before the court that she had also shown the court’s order to the police, though she was bailed out next but she was in custody for a day.
The top court ordered that the petitioner should be compensated with Rs 15,000 for the illegal detention for one day which will be shared by the two police officers and the payment to be made within a period of two weeks.
The bench noted that two police officers filed their affidavit seeking to express unconditional apology. However, the bench said that behaviour of the officers was in the teeth of the court’s order and cautioned the police officers to be careful in future.
The top court passed the order on a contempt plea filed by the woman against two police officers. In a previous order passed in January this year, the bench had noted petitioner’s counsel arguments that despite the November 2021 order, within two days the woman was arrested from a hospital where she was working as a nurse.
The bench noted that the police officers were ready to compensate the woman from their own pocket in the matter.
In 2021, the woman had moved the apex court challenging the Bombay High Court order, passed in August 2021, refusing to entertain her plea for anticipatory bail in the case.
