Cop told to pay for false probe against disabled NDA staffer
Mumbai : Slamming a police officer for falsely implicating a disabled employee of the National Defence Academy (NDA) by carrying out a false investigation, the Bombay HC has quashed and set aside the FIR and consequential proceedings against the staffer. "Such an act of the investigating officer (IO)... can be termed as causing mental agony, lowering down dignity and ill-treating the petitioner, an academician (sic)," said Justices Nitin Sambre and R N Laddha in the August 4 order released on Thursday. They awarded compensation of Rs 25,000 to Kamal Tiwari and directed it to be paid to the Maharashtra State Legal Services Authority within six months. The state will recover the amount from the salary of the IO, Anand Pa gare, who is currently posted as inspector at Police Training Centre, Daund. The NDA had sent Tiwari's 41% disability certificate issued by Sassoon Hospital, Pune, on December 1, 2012, to the facility for verification. The hospital said it couldn't trace the original record, prompting the NDA to lodge a police complaint in May 2016 that Tiwari, who had joined as assistant professor (sociology), had produced a forged certificate. Tiwari was booked for cheating and forgery. In September 2016, the hospital wrote to Pagare that the original record had been traced. Pagare ignored this communication, and filed the 'malicious' chargesheet in July 2017. In June, the judges issued a contempt notice to Pagare after he "intentionally" ignored their query on whether he had looked into the record. In his reply, Pagare said he had recorded the statements of two doctors who denied signing the certificate. He said it was his first posting. The judges said he was expected to verify the certificate's genuineness. Tiwari's advocate Jagdish Reddy said he suffered because of Pagare's vindictive attitude. Pagare's advocate Satyavrat Joshi said he regrets the bonafide mistake and tenders his unconditional apology to the court and to Tiwari. The judges said "malicious" prosecution caused Tiwari not only harassment but also immeasurable anguish, and the acts done in a clandestine manner by Pagare warrant compensation. Reddy said Tiwari is not interested in compensation and it can be paid to the legal services authority. The judges discharged the contempt notice, warning Pagare to be "more diligent". -- Disclaimer: 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent through this mailing list.. Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/accessindia@accessindia.org.in/ --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "AccessIndia" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to accessindia+unsubscr...@accessindia.org.in. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/a/accessindia.org.in/d/msgid/accessindia/005501d9fab6%24b30c4d20%241924e760%24%40gmail.com.
