Patna: The Patna High Court has directed the Bihar government to award a compensation of Rs 5 lakh to a minor boy who was “unlawfully” put behind the bars for more than two months on the charge of theft last year.
The high court slammed the Investigating Officer (IO) in the case for arresting the juvenile showing him as an adult even after finding no material evidence, and said the magistrate’s court also sent the petitioner behind the bars in a “mechanical manner”.
A division bench comprising Justices Rajeev Ranjan Prasad and Ritesh Kumar directed the state to award a cost of Rs 15,000 to the petitioner to compensate for the “incurred expenses in contesting the litigation” by the family.
An FIR was registered against the 16-year-old boy and 13 others in Puraini police station of Bihar’s Madhepura district on July 11 last year for assault and looting of silver chain and other ornaments during a Panchayat meeting over a land dispute.
As per the high court order, although no sufficient material against 10 of the 14 accused was found, leading to non-filing of chargesheet against them, the IO, on the direction of DIG of Koshi Range, arrested the 10 on October 10 by “assuming the allegations to be true”. Before that, one of the 14 accused was arrested while three others were absconding.
“Keeping in view that a young boy who is a juvenile at this stage has undergone physical and mental agony for two and half months by now, the state government shall pay this amount (Rs 5 lakh) to the petitioner within a period of one month,” the court said in an order.
It stated that the kin of the petitioner, through a writ application, informed the court on November 24 in the course of hearing that the petitioner is a juvenile as per his date of birth certificate.
The court order noted that the investigating officers (IO) were “fully aware of the fact” that the ten accused persons have already been shown “not sent up for trial” but still made an application before the Magistrate’s Court for permitting a further investigation.
“The IO could not lay his hand to any other material against the petitioner but on October 25, he arrested the petitioner, described his age as 19 years and produced him before the court from where he was sent to jail,” the court observed.
The order also noted that “the learned Magistrate did not look into these aspects” and sent the petitioner behind the bars in a “mechanical manner”.
The bench in its January 9 order stated that it was fully satisfied that the petitioner’s “Right to Life and Liberty has been violated” by the act of the police officials.
“The direction of the DIG, Koshi Range, to investigate the case assuming the allegations true is against the principles of presumption of innocence which is the Cardinal Principle of Criminal Law Jurisprudence,” it said.
The bench further added that “in complete breach of the provisions of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, the petitioner was languishing in jail”.
The court highlighted that it was a case of unlawful arrest of the petitioner and in such a circumstance, “this Court being a Constitutional Court cannot remain a mute spectator”.