Five years after two men were assaulted by a policeman at the Kattur Police Station in Coimbatore, the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) on Friday directed the Tamil Nadu government to pay a compensation of ₹1 lakh to each of them.
SHRC member V. Kannadasan also recommended that a sum of ₹2 lakh be recovered from V. Ganeshkumar, Sub-Inspector of Police then attached to the C1 Kattur Police Station in Coimbatore. The Commission also recommended the initiating of disciplinary proceedings against him.
Complainant Kalpana of Sithaputhur, Coimbatore in her complaint said that her son M. Vignesh was taken to the police station by the respondent in 2018, where he was assaulted with a PVC pipe, injuring his knees, foot and thighs. Her son moved the National Commission for SC/ST as well as the SHRC in this regard.
Though the respondent threatened him, asking him to withdraw the cases, her son refused to comply. Meanwhile, she said, her son filed a complaint regarding the temporary installation of a Lord Vinayagar idol during the Vinayagar Chathurthi festival. The respondent then registered a false case against her son, the complainant claimed.
The respondent denied the allegations and cited a complaint from Dhanapackiam on September 10, 2018 claiming that Kalpana’s husband and two sons attacked her and argued that a case was registered against them under relevant sections of the Tamil Nadu City Police Act and the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Harassment of Women Act. The trial in this case, was pending.
Considering the oral and documentary evidence and the argument of both the parties, the SHRC said that the previous enmity between the respondent and M. Dinesh and his brother M. Vignesh was established and that the respondent had assaulted them and caused injuries.
“It is now a well-accepted proposition in most of the jurisdiction, that monetary or pecuniary compensation is an appropriate and indeed an effective and sometimes perhaps the only suitable remedy for redressal of the established infringement of the fundamental right to life of a citizen by the public servants,” the Commission said.
