SAROJ SHRIVAS Vs. STATE OF CHHATTISGARH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner has filed this writ petition seeking issuance of a writ of mandamus directing an enquiry regarding custodial death of her husband namely Late Santosh Sriwas, by a District Judge or Central Bureau of Investigation and further to direct the respondents to grant her monetary compensation.

(2.) Brief facts of the case are that on 30.4.2011 the petitioner's husband namely Santosh Sriwas was admitted in District Jail, Janjgir in connection with Crime No.42/11 registered at Police Station AJAK, Janjgir for commission of offence punishable under Sections 294, 526 & 324 of the Indian Penal Code (henceforth 'the IPC') and Section 3 (1) (x) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. Death of petitioner's husband took place on 30.5.2011 while he was in custody. Soon after the death occurred, his post-mortem was conducted by a team of doctors of the District Hospital, Janjgir. The postmortem report indicates that cause of death of petitioner's husband was the multiple injuries and their complication. A magisterial inquiry under Section 176 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 was held and the Magistrate, who conducted the magisterial enquiry, after recording statements of all the persons concerned, found that the petitioner's husband i.e. deceased detenu was assaulted by co-prisoners of the cell namely Ashwani alias Pappu Mali, Rakesh Kenwat, Maniram Sahu & Sarju Kashyap; the death of petitioner's husband took place due to delay on the part of the jail staff of District Jail Janjgir i.e. Compounder & Medical Officer posted at the relevant point of time, in providing medical treatment to the deceased; the deceased detenu was subjected to beating and for that the Guards on duty namely Bharat Das Tandon, Shri Radhe Shyam Sharma & Bhanu Pratap Das, are responsible for their lapses in not giving intimation in respect of the same to their senior officers. As per magisterial report, the Superintendent of District Jail, Janjgir has no proper control over the jail staff. The magisterial enquiry report was submitted to the State Government. Pursuant to said enquiry report, departmental action was taken against the concerned delinquent employees of District Jail, Janjgir and the punishment of stoppage of one annual increment with non-cumulative effect was imposed on each of them. After merg enquiry, offence under Sections 302 & 201 of IPC was also registered against the aforesaid co-prisoners and after a full fledged trial, they have been found guilty of commission of murder.

(3.) At the outset, learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the petitioner does not want to press the relief of seeking an enquiry regarding custodial death of her husband and only wants to press the second relief which relates to grant of appropriate monetary compensation to the petitioner. In view of such submission, Relief No.1 is dismissed as such.