Rs.10 million compensation for miscarriage of justice

CHANDIGARH - Nachhattar Singh and his four other “murder” co-accused spent the past 13 years in agony. They made countless rounds of the courts and police stations claiming they were innocent and even spent five years in jail. Finally, the Punjab High Court has exonerated them and will compensate them with Rs.10 million, an official said Thursday.

The Punjab police’s apathy, as also connivance, enabled framing of false evidence against Nachhattar Singh and others and secure their conviction for “murder” of a man who, however, resurfaced last December, the official added.

The convictions were appealed by Nachhattar Singh and the other co-accused — his son Sira Singh, Amarjit Singh, Nikka Singh and Surjit Singh, all residents of a village near Barnala town in Punjab, around 110 km from here.

They were sentenced to life imprisonment by a local court in 2001 for “murdering” Jagseer Singh in 1996. Jagseer Singh, however, resurfaced later.

In its judgement Wednesday, the Punjab and Haryana High Court here acquitted them of all charges and directed the Punjab government to pay a total compensation of Rs.10 million (Rs.1 crore) to them.

Nachhatar Singh and the other appellants appeared satisfied with the verdict. They said they were not going to file a separate case against those who had framed them.

We are not going to file a separate case. The court has already directed the police to initiate a fresh inquiry and register a new case against those people who had filed a complaint against Nachhattar Singh and the cops who had connived in the case. In this case, investigating officers were working in connivance with the complainants, Vinod Ghai, defence lawyer, told IANS here Thursday.

“I have lost my son, agricultural land and all savings while fighting this case. We suffered terrible torture by the police, while we were in jail but nobody listened to us. Now we want to see all the culprits behind bars at the earliest,” Nachhattar Singh said here Thursday.

As per the court’s decision, the police will initiate an inquiry against a dozen people, including two police officials.

The court observed that the appellants had lost their life’s best years in jail and had to bear immense financial burden in fighting the case.

My clients had suffered both physically and mentally. Now they cannot do anything as they have already lost everything while fighting the legal battle. Police produced false proof and showed the recovery of those bloodstained weapons that were never used by my clients, said Ghai.