SHARMILA JAISAWAL Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) IN the instant writ petition the petitioner, who is the wife of the deceased Raja Prasad, has prayed for grant of compensation as her husband admittedly died in police lock up.

(2.) THE petitioner states that on 4.10.2006 at about 7 P.M. some altercation took place between the husband of the petitioner on the one hand and Shankar Das and others on the other hand. Around that time the Officer -Incharge of Mufassil P.S. Respondent No. 6 along with his associates came and arrested Raja Prasad and his cousin Nandu Prasad. On query the respondent No. 6 said that they should be soon let off. The police also arrested Shankar Das and Laxman Das who are respondents 9 and 10. All of them were locked in police Hajat of Muffasil P.S. In the evening the petitioner's brother -in -law went to the police station to enquire about Raja Prasad and Nandu Prasad. Respondent No. 6 stated that they would be released in the morning. Thereafter the petitioner went to the police station on the following morning at about 5 A.M. She was surprised to find her husband lying unconscious in the police hajat drained in blood; some one in the night had brutally assaulted him with knife. When the informant and her family members sought explanation, the police instead got enraged and assaulted them. The petitioner learnt that police had instituted two cases, one on the statement of Shankar Das being Motihari Mufassil P.S. Case No. 180 of 2006 dated 4.10.2006 and another at the instance of her husband, Raja Prasad being Motihari Mufassil P.S. Case No. 181 of 2006 dated 4.10.2006. Later the police also instituted another case on the statement of her brother -in -law Nandu Prasad on 5.10.2006 at about 8.15 A.M. wherein he alleged that Shankar Das assaulted Raja Prasad in the wee hours of 5.10.2007 in police Hajat. She stated that her husband was taken to hospital where he was declared dead. The post mortem report shows that the deceased died due to stab injury.

(3.) THE case of the petitioner is that police in connivance with respondents 9 and 10 brutally assaulted her husband causing his death.