Gwalior (Madhya Pradesh): The Gwalior bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court has ordered the Director General of Police (DGP) to pay Rs 10 lakh for falsely arresting the victim under NDPS Act and keeping him in jail for nine months. It has ordered strict action against the responsible police officers on Saturday.
The police had arrested an accused for the possession of MDMA, commonly known as ecstasy, which was later revealed to be urea in forensic investigation.
Murar police had arrested an accused, Rohit Tiwari on September 6 last year and claimed that 760 grams of MDMA had been seized from his possession.
The police action gained much traction in the media among claims that the drugs were brought to Gwalior's restaurants and pool parties to be held at farm houses.
Rohit was sent to jail under section 8/20 of National Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985.
FSL report showed that the seized substance was urea
Later, the accused, through his counsel, filed a petition in the Gwalior bench of the MP High Court under Article 439 in this case and requested to present the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) report of the seized material before the court. The High Court accepted the petition and called for the report. It was found in the report that the substance seized from Rohit Tiwari was not MDMA drug but urea.
Compensation of Rs 10 lakh for vilotation of personal liberty
Rohit Tiwari's lawyer Sunil Goswami said “The High Court found in the investigation report that the seized substance urea does not amount to a case under NDPS Act against the accused, therefore this FIR is wrong and should be quashed. Along with this, the court agreed that by keeping Rohit Tiwari in custody for 9 months, his personal liberty was violated, for which the DGP should give him Rs 10 lakh as compensation.”
“Instructions have been given to the investigating officers to ensure that such falsies are not recorded in future and action should be taken against the guilty police officers”, he further added.
