MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court has directed the state government to pay Rs 8 lakh as compensation to a man for the psychological suffering, social stigma and loss of job opportunity he underwent after he was falsely booked in a dacoity case by Thanjavur police in 2017.
The court directed the Home department to recover the money from the police personnel involved in the case.
Justice B Pugalendhi passed the order on Tuesday on a petition filed by Sarathkumar seeking to quash the case.
According to the prosecution, on November 11, 2017, when Madukkur police were on patrol, they received a tip-off about a robbery attempt. When they reached the spot, they found Sarathkumar and four others sitting near Avvaiyandi tank allegedly planning a robbery.
They registered a case against all five under Section 399 for making preparations to commit dacoity, which means robbery committed by five or more persons together.
Sarathkumar’s counsel said that due to the pendency of the FIR, which was foisted based on presumption and surmises without any materials, Sarathkumar could not get any job in India. Also, his visa application was rejected and Police Clearance report was not issued. Hence, he could not secure a job abroad either, he said.
After going through the case records, Justice Pugalendhi said there was no material to prove that the accused were planning a dacoity.
Citing that the final report has not been filed even after eight years, the judge directed the Home department to pay Rs 8 lakh as compensation to Sarathkumar within three months and recover the amount from the police officers concerned.