MADURAI: Holding the state liable for the sufferings undergone by a woman after she was falsely booked by the police under the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act in 2010, the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court recently directed the state government to pay rupees 2 lakh compensation to the woman within two months.
Justice R Vijayakumar passed the order on a petition filed by Vasanthi (name changed) in 2016, seeking `1 crore compensation. Vasanthi, working as a yoga teacher in Kanniyakumari, rented a house with her family in 2009. But without returning the deposit amount, the landlord kept coercing them to vacate the house.
In April 2010, Vasanthi was arrested by Thiruvattar police on a false complaint claiming that she invited a man for prostitution. She was also detained in a rehabilitation home for 13 days. However, a subsequent inquiry conducted by a deputy superintendent of police in 2011 revealed she was innocent and that she had been framed by the local police personnel, at the instigation of the landlord, by misusing the signature obtained on a blank paper from a traffic offender.
Following this, the case against Vasanthi was quashed. But, citing that the incident was widely published in the media and had damaged her and her reputation, she sought Rupees 1 crore compensation from the government.
Though the government counsel argued the wrong committed by the police officers had been rectified through the DSP’s inquiry and hence the state cannot be held liable, Justice Vijayakumar rejected it. He also noted that the government failed to initiate action against the official who registered the false case.
“The entire criminal case against Vasanthi had been based upon some information provided through phone by an anonymous person which was later converted into a complaint through a person who was brought to the police station for a traffic offence. Therefore, the state cannot shirk its responsibility,” he observed and passed the order.