In an order on Monday, a bench of Justices S C Sharma and Shailendra Shukla ordered that Rs 5 lakh be given as compensation to the tribal within 30 days.
Husan, a 68-year-old tribal from Dhar district in Madhya Pradesh, spent nearly four months in jail because the police were convinced that he was Husna, his stepbrother, and refused to listen to his pleas that he was not the murder convict they were looking for.
The police maintained that it was not a case of mistaken identity and even submitted an affidavit that they had arrested the right person till an inquiry ordered by the High Court based on fingerprint examination proved otherwise.
The matter came to light when Husan’s son filed a habeas corpus petition in the Indore bench of the MP High Court. The petition pointed out that Husna had died on September 10, 2016, and enclosed a death certificate.
In an order on Monday, a bench of Justices S C Sharma and Shailendra Shukla ordered that Rs 5 lakh be given as compensation to the tribal within 30 days. The Dhar Collector has been asked to help Husan open a bank account in case he does not have it.
“The present case is an example of arresting innocent people without identifying them properly and, therefore, it’s directed that in all cases, where an arrest is made, the authorities shall identify the person so arrested on the basis of biometric as well as other documents in order to ensure their identity,” the bench said, adding “to ensure that no innocent person like the father of the present petitioner, Husan, goes to jail”.
“This court hopes and trust that on the basis of mistaken identity of an individual, classic comedy of error shall not be repeated as written by great author, William Shakespeare,” it said.
In his petition, Kamlesh said that his father, an illiterate tribal, had been illegally detained, produced before a magistrate and sent to jail. He said that police officials told him that his father had been convicted under Section 302 of the IPC and sentenced to life imprisonment in a trial.
The petitioner’s advocate, Devendra Chouhan, submitted that one Husna was convicted, released on parole and that he later died in 2016. After notices were served, the state government in an affidavit said that he was the same person and that an arrest warrant had been issued on October 15, 2019, because he did not report after being released on parole.
The state government said that he was sent to Indore to serve the remainder of his life term.
When the petitioner insisted that Husna and Husan were two different persons, the High Court on January 30 asked the principal secretary (Home) to conduct an inquiry based on fingerprints and other documents. Fingerprints are collected at the time of arrest and when a person is sent to jail.
Observing that it was an alleged case of illegal detention, the bench gave the bureaucrat seven days to conduct the inquiry and depute special messengers to ensure that the court gets a response on February 10 while warning against non-compliance.
In a signed report, the principal secretary said that the person in jail is not Husna. The court ordered that a separate case of contempt be registered against police officials for false statement and false affidavits.