The Supreme Court in the case Shatrughna Atmaram Patil And Ors Versus Vinod Dodhu Chaudhary and Anr observed and has imposed the cost amounting to Rs. 6 lakhs on six police personnel of the Maharashtra Police for conspiring and illegally detaining tenants, while coercing them to sign documents against the will of them, and demolishing the premises in question without any order from a competent court.
It has also been claimed by the tenants before the court that they were forcefully evicted from the rented premises by the subsequent purchaser of the property while conspiring with the police and both the purchaser and the six police personnel are arraigned as accused.
The court in the case stated that when the FIR was not registered at the instance of the private complaint to the magistrate, thus, the tenants preferred a revision application before the Sessions Court and the police in the matter were directed to register the FIR and investigate the case.
The Session Court in the case observed and has ordered for the registration of the FIR, the accused persons approached the High Court for quashing the complaint.
Further, the High Court in the case observed and has declined to interfere and dismissed the complaint, directing the police to further investigate the case.
Therefore, the same being against the impugned order of the High Court that the accused preferred a Special Leave Petition, Criminal before the Supreme Court.
The court noted that the settlement has been reached between the complainant tenants and the accused persons, with subsequent purchasers paying an amount of Rs. 10 lakhs to each of the tenants.
Therefore, the tenants filed affidavts wherein it is stated that they do not wish to further prosecute their complaint.
The bench comprising of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Satish Chandra Sharma in the case observed that the continuation of the proceedings would serve no purpose.
The court stated that this court was not inclined to continue the criminal proceedings which are initiated against the accused persons, it expressed displeasure with the conduct of the police personnel.
The court directed that the six police personnel will suffer a cost for an amount of Rs. 6.0 lakhs for each of the two complainants.
The court in the case observed that out of the six police personnel, three are constables, one is a Head Constable, one is a Sub-Inspector, and one is an Inspector. They shall suffer the cost of Rs. 50,000/- per Constable, Rs.1,00,000/- by the Head Constable, Rs. 1.50 lacs by the Sub-Inspector, and the amount of Rs. 2.0 lacs by the Inspector, totalling Rs. 6.0 lacs for each case with the above distribution.
The court while considering the facts and circumstances of the case stated that the observations made in the judgment and also the direction to suffer compensation to the tenants by the six police personnel will not be treated as adverse to their interest in consideration of their promotions etc.
