Arresting the wrong person in connection with the liquidation proceedings of a company, pending before the court, has proved costly for the police as the High Court of Karnataka has now directed the State government to pay ₹5 lakh as compensation to the affected person.
The police had arrested Ningaraju N., a resident of Bengaluru, and produced him before the court even though he had pleaded with the police that he was not the one, N.G.N. Raju, an ex-director of M/s India Holiday (P) Ltd., which is under liquidation. The court had issued warrant against the ex-director Raju.
Rather shocking
“It is rather shocking that a person has been arrested without ascertaining whether he was the person who was required to be arrested and that the warrant had been issued against him. Though the arrestee had categorically stated that he was not the person named in the warrant and disputed the applicability of the warrant to him, his identification was not cross-checked and verified resulting an innocent person being arrested by the police,” the court observed.
Justice Suraj Govindaraj passed the order on an application filed by Mr. Ningaraju, who was wrongly arrested and produced before the court by the police.
Noticing that “the only reason why the applicant was arrested is that the name of his father was similar to the name of the person named in the warrant”, the court wondered “how the name of the father being similar or even identical would have any role to play in the arrest”.
Fundamental right affected
Stating that illegal action by the police has affected the fundamental right to liberty and reputation of the applicant, the court directed the government to pay the compensation within eight weeks to the applicant. Also, the court said that the government could recover the compensation from the police officer, who arrested the wrong person.
Meanwhile, the court also directed the State police chief to ensure adherence to the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to ensure the identify of the persons before arresting, and issue such SOP, if not in place already.
