Orissa HC Directs Govt to Pay Rs 10 Lakh Compensation for Custodial Death 7 Yrs Ago

Cuttack: Orissa High Court has directed the state government to pay Rs 10 lakh compensation to the parents of a victim of custodial torture and death. This custodial death had occurred more than seven years back in Koraput district.

Personnel of Jeypore police station in Koraput district, on January 30, 2017, had arrested Akash Mahuria, as he was wanted in several criminal cases with non-bailable warrants. Mahuria was allegedly tortured in police custody and sustained multiple injuries. Later, he succumbed to his injuries during treatment in a government hospital. Parents of the deceased, Pradip Kumar Mahuria and Prabina Mahuria, had moved the Odisha Human Rights Commission (OHRC) regarding his death. The OHRC had ordered an inquiry by the State crime branch of police into the alleged custodial death case.

But for some reason the CB inquiry never progressed, and because of this, the deceased’s parents approached the doors of Orissa High Court seeking justice.

A Division Bench of Justice Biraja Prasanna Satapathy, expressing displeasure over the slow progress of the Crime Branch probe and rejecting the police version that the victim died due to falling down from the motorcycle, directed the Government to pay Rs 10 lakh compensation to the petitioners (deceased’s parents).

“After going through the materials on record, more particularly the nature and number on injuries on the deceased’s body, the Court is of the prima facie opinion that son of the petitioners died due to severe assault inflicted on him by the local police of Jeypore police station on 30 January 2017”, Justice Satapathy stated in the order.

The Court is not inclined to accept the stand taken by the opposite parties that the man succumbed to injury because of falling down from the motorcycle. It can be safely concluded that the deceased was subjected to police atrocity and due to assault inflicted on him, the deceased succumbed to injury, the order added.