Date:05/07/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/05/stories/2008070551231000.htm

Tamil Nadu - Madurai

Bench reprimands Samayapuram police

Staff Reporter

MADURAI: The Madras High Court Bench here has reprimanded the Samayapuram police in Tiruchi district for displaying the photographs of an innocent mother-son duo on a board warning people of habitual thieves outside the Samayapuram Temple allegedly due to previous animosity.

Disposing of a writ petition filed by the mother, Justice K. Suguna directed the Inspector of Police concerned to pay a compensation of Rs.50, 000 to the duo. However, she did not order any disciplinary proceedings against the officer but for warning him not to repeat such things in the future.

On the Inspector’s contention that the photographs were displayed mistakenly, the Judge said: “When it is admitted by the eighth respondent (Inspector) that no theft case is pending either against the petitioner or her son, there is no possibility of storing their photographs in the Police Station computer. Hence, at the efforts taken alone, these photographs would have been fed into the computer.”

According to the petitioner’s counsel, R. Alagumani, his client was teased by an inebriated police constable near a fruit stall at Thillai Nagar in Tiruchi on January 2, 2008. There was a wordy duel between her son and the constable. Irked over it, the latter, along with a few others from a nearby police station, attacked the mother-son duo with batons.

The victims were admitted to the Government hospital in Tiruchi, when the police took their signatures in blank papers and raided their house. The petitioner’s brother and other relatives were arrested and kept in illegal custody for two days. Two false cases were foisted against the petitioner and her son by for allegedly intimidating the fruit stall employee, the counsel said.

Mr. Alagumani said that the police also registered a false case against the petitioner’s lawyer in Tiruchi. A representation was given to the Collector on February 2 to punish the erring policemen, but there was no action. Subsequently, in the first week of March, the petitioner came to know that the Thillai Nagar police had arranged to display her photograph in Samayapuram with the help of the local police.