MADURAI: Acquitting a man in a ganja case, the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court recently ordered three policemen to jointly pay a Rs 10 lakh fine to a man for falsely implicating him.
Justice K K Ramakrishnan passed the order while allowing an appeal filed by A Vignesh, challenging an order passed by the I Additional Special Court for NDPS Act Cases, Madurai, which convicted and sentenced him to 10 years imprisonment in March 2023.
The judge noted that based on a tip-off, the then sub-inspector of Thideer Nagar Police station, Panaraj, and his team had seized 24kg of ganja from V Mammalairaj and arrested him along with Vignesh and a few others, who were also present at the spot.
Later, based on the confession of Mammalairaj, the lower court had convicted Vignesh. However, the judge cited that the Supreme Court reiterated in several judgments that a conviction based on a confession of the co-accused is not legally maintainable, and the police also failed to get the signature of Vignesh in the recovery document.
He also raised doubt as to why Inspector Mohammed Idris, who was said to have received the report about the tip-off, was belatedly added as a witness. Moreover, Idris had given false evidence before the trial court as if he received the report, though Panaraj’s statement denoted the information was received by an in-charge inspector Lingapandi. Idris, Panaraj, and the investigation officer Senthilkumar had conspired to get the conviction by hook or by crook, the judge criticised.
He directed the DGP to conduct a probe and the three cops to pay a joint fine of Rs 10 lakh to Vignesh all within a month.