- Justice Bharati H Dangre pulls up the Maharashtra government for saying there is no policy to compensate foreign nationals and directs that the amount be recovered from the erring lab official
- The 27-year-old was arrested in October 2020 for possessing pills which had Lidocaine, Tapentadol and caffeine. A report had falsely said that they are prohibited by the NDPS Act
The Bombay high court on Friday directed the Maharashtra government to pay Rs 2 lakh ($2,511) compensation to a Nigerian man who was wrongly incarcerated for nearly two years because of an alleged typographical error in the chemical analysis report of substances seized from him.
A single bench of Justice Bharati Dangre was hearing the bail plea filed by the 27-year-old Nigerian, who was arrested in October 2020 for possession of drugs. According to the prosecution, the man was arrested after the police received specific information that a Nigerian national would be at a given spot at a given time to sell cocaine.
The ATS seized contraband purported to be 116.19 grams of cocaine and a pouch containing 40.73 g of saffron-coloured heart-shaped pills and 4.41 g of pink pills – purportedly ecstasy tablets – from the man.
All the drugs were in commercial quantity and were sent to the forensic science laboratory for chemical analysis.
When the report came, it was stated that the drugs found on the Nigerian were not cocaine or ecstasy but Lidocaine, Tapentadol and caffeine. However, the report – signed by the assistant director of the forensic science laboratory – stated that Lidocaine and Tapentadol are prohibited under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.
However, the assistant director of the Regional Forensic Science Laboratory, Aurangabad had a year later expressed his regret and corrected the analysis and stated that these chemicals do not fall under the NDPS Act.
Based on this, the Nigerian man approached the high court seeking bail. On Friday, Justice Dangre ordered for the accused to be released on bail on a surety of Rs 25,000 and directed the state government to pay Rs 2 lakh compensation to him within six weeks.
The court was informed by additional government pleader A.A. Takalkar that the government did not have any policy for awarding compensation for wrongful arrest, but an inquiry would be initiated against the concerned officer.
To this, Justice Dangre said, “So you can keep people behind bars and not give compensation just because there is no policy? When it comes to depriving a person of fundamental rights, you require a policy?”
“As an exceptional case, I deem it appropriate to direct the state to pay compensation of Rs 2 lakh within six weeks,” Justice Dangre said, adding that if the state wants to conduct an enquiry, it can recover the amount from the guilty officers after completing the probe.
Granting bail to the Nigerian on Wednesday, Justice Dangre said, “The error, which is sought to be explained and projected as a typing error, is a blatant mistake, which is admitted by the Assistant Director after more than a year, of incarceration of the applicant. It deserve[s] to be looked at seriously, but for the said report, the applicant could not have been detained.”
Merely because the applicant is a foreign national and has an antecedent does not authorise the state to detain him when the substance found on him was neither a narcotic drug nor a psychotropic substance, the court held.
“Liberty of an individual is of paramount importance and it is the fulcrum of the Indian democracy. Recognized as a fundamental right, enshrined in Article 2, it is available to every person, citizens and foreigners alike,” Justice Dangre said.
First published in The Wire India
