In re Kamlesh v. State of MP, the High Court of Madhya Pradesh had directed the state to pay a sum of Rs. 5 Lakhs to the man who was detained illegally by the local authorities. The HC has pinpointed that the state in order to hide their illegalities had detained an innocent man named ‘Husan’, an illiterate 68 years old tribal man was caught from his village and produced before the High Court stating him to be ‘Husna’. The learned Judge, believing the fact reported by the police, in a mechanical manner sent him to jail. The learned counsel for petitioner said that ‘Husna’, who was actually convicted u/s 302 of the Indian Penal Code died while he was on parole and the police had arrested ‘Husan’ father of the petitioner instead.
However, the HC identified that the state had positively submitted that it had produced the right person. The Sub Divisional Officer of Police had also submitted a supporting affidavit to the statement submitted by the state government. For further confirmation the HC had directed the Home Department to conduct an examination whether the detenu is the right person or not.
"An inquiry has been conducted in the matter and based upon the finger prints, a report has come duly signed by the Principal Secretary Home Department and now the Principal Secretary has stated that the person who is in jail is not Husna, meaning thereby, an innocent person is languishing in jail for the last four months," the bench comprising of Justice SC Sharma and Justice Shailendra Shukla observed.
The HC went to mark the current case as an example of arresting innocent individuals without a proper inquiry and also directed that
"In all cases, where an arrest is made, the authorities shall identify the persons so arrested on the basis of Bio-metric as well as other documents in order to ensure their identity, in order to ensure that no innocent person like the father of the present petitioner, Husan go to jail again.”
The court also suspended the authority in responsible for trying to convict an innocent man who had no connection to the case and directed the state to pay a sum of Rs. 5L as a compensation to the victim Husan, the father of the petitioner. The court also initiates contempt proceedings against all the local authorities who were involved in this heinous offence.
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