KOCHI: The Kerala High Court on Tuesday directed the state government to pay a compensation of Rs 2.5 lakh each to two persons from Kollam for keeping them in illegal custody by falsely implicating them in abkari cases by excise officials. Citing Mahatma Gandhi’s words that “Men in prison are ‘civilly dead’ and have no claim to any say in policy”, Justice P V Kunhikrishnan observed that “confinement is always confinement and if a person wants to know about the same, he should face that situation”.
The court issued the order on the petitions filed by Anilkumar A B and R Prashan. The petitioners were arrested and they had been in confinement for more than 50 days in connection with two separate abkari cases. The excise department had later initiated disciplinary proceedings against the officials responsible and barred two increments for them.
The court directed the government to carry out a study or inquiry about the search, seizure, arrest and investigation made in abkari cases in the last five years by appointing an appropriate person and do the needful in accordance with law. The action-taken report should be submitted before the court in this regard in six weeks.
The court stated that there cannot be any false implication against innocent persons due to private disputes. Now, if an excise officer has an enmity with a person, he can easily implicate that person as an accused if there is a bottle and small quantity of illicit liquor.
These two cases are classic examples in which two innocent citizens were implicated falsely in abkari cases. In 70% to 90% of abkari cases, the independent witnesses had turned hostile. This is a serious concern which has to be looked into by the government and legislature and revisit the manner in which the search, seizure and investigation in the abkari cases are conducted.