A man whose gold chain went missing from the custody of Buldhana police station ten years ago finally got relief after the Bombay high court (HC) directed the police superintendent and district collector of the area to compensate him as per market value.
A division bench of Justices AB Chaudhari and PN Deshmukh of the HC's Nagpur bench has directed them to first compensate Vijay Pandagale, and then recover the amount from the constables from whose custody the chain went missing.
In 2005, there was a theft at Pandagale's home wherein the gold chain weighing 17.95 gm went missing. The chain was seized from the accused, and kept as muddemal property(kept in police custody till the completion of a trial) at the police station, from where it disappeared.
The police arrested one Bhagwan for the theft at Pandagale's home. Bhagwan was later acquitted by the judicial magistrate in 2013. The magistrate also directed thegovernment to compensate Pandagale for the chain.
When Pandagale did not receive the compensation, he wrote a letter to the HC, which called for a reply from the district collector of Buldhana.
The district collector replied that the office of the district superintendent had initiated action to recover the amount as per market value of the seized chain from the salaries of head constables Shaikh Shabbir and Ravindra Rane in equal installments, which would be paid to Pandagale. A primary enquiry had also been initiated and disciplinary action will be taken against the delinquent employees, said the reply.
The judges, however, did not accept the contention of Pandagale being compensated after the amount is recovered. "It is not fault of the complainant-petitioner (Pandagale) that the property seized by police and stored in the police station was lost. Therefore, to ask the complainant-petitioner to wait till the recovery is made from the erring police officials is punishing him again," observed the HC.
"We are, therefore, of the opinion that the petitioner should be first paid the compensation, and thereafter, the process to recover the same should be undertaken that too by adopting the process of holding an inquiry," added the bench.
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