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Kattapanchayat: SHRC seeks prosecution against inspector
Taking a serious note over the allegations of human rights violation against a police officer, who intimidated and assaulted a retired government official after the latter ignored his demand to withdraw a complaint against two brothers who grabbed his land, the State Human Rights Commission directed the State government to initiate criminal prosecution and departmental action against the policeman, and place him under suspension till the completion of departmental inquiry into the matter. The commission also slapped a fine of Rs 1 lakh.
By
migrator
migrator
Chennai
According to the complainant, N Karuppasamy, who retired as Assistant Director from the Department of Rural Development, he bought a piece of land in Panneerkulam village, Thoothukudi.
However, two brothers, Srinivasan and Sadish Narayanakumar, claimed that the land belonged to them. When Karuppasamy approached Koilpatti tahsildar to find out the patta and other documents the brothers produced, he was informed that they were forged. He then approached the Kayathar police with a complaint in December 2014.
However, instead of dealing with the matter as per the law, Udhayasooriyan, the then inspector, forced Karuppasamy to withdraw the complaint. He threatened him that a case would be foisted and forced him to sign a statement.
Following this, Karuppasamy approached the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court to register a criminal case, which was allowed. He also sent several representations to the higher officials seeking to transfer the case to another official, but no action was forthcoming.
In August 2015, Karuppasamy went to the police station after a case was filed against his son-in-law. There, inspector Udhayasooriyan allegedly assaulted him.
However, the inspector denied all allegations claiming that he was not present at the station during the time of the incident, and sought to present his mobile phone call details to substantiate this.
But rejecting this, commission member D Jayachandran pointed out that the Koilpatti tahsildar himself had certified that the documents presented by Srinivasan and Sadish Narayanakumar were forged.
“It is categorically established that the [inspector] conducted kattapanchayat (kangaroo court) in favour of Srinivasan and Sadish Narayanakumar for the reasons best known to him and registered a false criminal case… He also tortured the complainant and violated his human rights… He misused his police power,” the commission held.
Commission member Jayachandran then recommended the government to pay Karuppasamy a compensation of Rs 1 lakh within four weeks, which should subsequently be recovered from inspector Udhayasooriyan.
It also recommended launching criminal prosecution and departmental inquiry against the inspector, who should be placed under suspension till the probe was over.
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