An errant policeman has been told by a Delhi court to pay Rs.20,000 compensation for implicating and agonising a man in a rash and negligent driving case whose trial has been on for almost 13 years, a lawyer said Saturday.
Metropolitan Magistrate Sidharth Mathur said: “In the interest of justice, the investigating officer (IO) is directed to pay a compensation of Rs.20,000 to Kamruddin who was falsely implicated in this case.”
“The present accused Kamruddin had suffered for more than last 13 years for something which he had never committed,” the court said.
The court said that strict action must be taken against investigating officer and assistant sub-inspector Shyam Lal to restore public faith in the system of administration of justice.
Lal implicated Kamruddin to allegedly help main accused Sidharth Jain. Jain was driving a motorcycle and Kamruddin was riding pillion when the vehicle hit complainant Ashok Bhola in north Delhi’s Rohini in 1998.
The court has now issued summons to Jain and fixed July 11 as the next date of hearing, said Kamruddin’s lawyer Jaideep Malik.
“Kamruddin was arrested earlier this year and spent two days in judicial custody,” said Malik.
The court, in an order delivered last month, acquitted Kamruddin of the charge of rash and negligent driving.
It said that an innocent man was made an accused while the main culprit was let off.
The magistrate said that from the statement of Bhola it was clear that Kamruddin was only a pillion rider and Jain was the driver of that vehicle.
“The testimony of Bhola read in its entirety clearly persuades this court that accused Kamruddin had no role or complicity in the accident in question which at this stage, prima facie, appears to have been caused by the negligent driving of Sidharth Jain,” said the court.
The court ruled that if the IO was allowed to let go that would become a wrong precedent and would inspire others to misuse the legal process to frame innocents.
The magistrate also sent a copy of the order copy to the policeman’s superiors.