ARUN SHARMA Vs. STATE OF M.P.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India has been filed seeking the following relief(s) :

(2.) The necessary facts in short are that the petitioner is a tenant in a shop. On 25-7-2020, the landlady of the said shop, made a complaint to the respondent no. 3/S.H.O., Police Station Bahodapur, Distt. Gwalior, alleging that the petitioner is neither vacating the shop nor is making payment of rent and has also threatened that he would encroach upon the remaining house of the landlady. Thus, it was prayed that the shop be got vacated and the arrears of rent be paid to the landlady. The respondent no. 3, marked the said complaint to the respondent no. 4 for conducting an enquiry and it is alleged that thereafter, the respondents no. 4 and 5 forcibly evicted the petitioner from the shop on 25-7-2020 itself and was also beaten by the respondent no.4. The goods including the furniture of the shop was taken to the police station where the petitioner was compelled to give an undertaking that he would vacate the shop and accordingly, the goods belonging to the petitioner were returned by the respondents. Thereafter, on 14-8-2020, the respondent no. 3 and 5 took the petitioner in custody, and got his uncovered face photograph published in the newspapers as well as on social media, by projecting him as a hard core criminal. On a complaint made to the Superintendent of Police, Gwalior, an enquiry was conducted and it was found that the petitioner is an innocent person having no criminal antecedents and accordingly, he was released. It is the stand of the respondents no. 1 and 2 that one person with similar name was wanted in a criminal case which was registered in the year 2011 and a reward of Rs. 5,000/- was declared by the Superintendent of Police, Gwalior by order dated 13-8-2020 and under mistaken identity, the petitioner was wrongly taken into custody. The respondent no.3 was placed under suspension and the news with regard to his suspension was duly published in the news papers.

(3.) It appears that thereafter, without conducting any enquiry or without passing any order of punishment, the suspension of the respondent no. 3 was revoked by order dated 28-8-2020 and he was given posting in some other police station. However, the order of revocation of suspension order of the respondent no.3 and his posting order have not been placed on record.