Pay Rs 8L : SC to IPS officer

Written by Writer on Saturday, October 25th, 2008

Pay Rs 8L: SC to IPS officer

25 Oct 2008, TNN

AHMEDABAD: Supreme Court has asked additional director-general of police Rajan Priyadarshi to pay Rs 8 lakh towards compensation to the person he assaulted blinding him in one eye, during a demonstration in 1987.

The incident took place on February 1, 1987, when Priyadarshi and then inspector RJ Yadav resorted to lathicharge during a protest demonstration. In this, a Congress leader, who has recently joined BJP, Dr Prafull Thaker was injured and lost his right eye. He moved the court seeking compensation for the injury.

An additional sessions judge DT Soni asked Priyadarshi to pay Rs 2 lakh compensation with 9 per cent interest to Thaker. Aggrieved by the lower court’s decision, the cop moved Gujarat High Court, but it too concluded the same and directed him to deposit the amount with a nationalised bank.

Priyadarshi didn’t stop there, and challenged the high court’s decision before the Supreme Court. But a division bench of Justice MK Sharma and Justice Arijit Pasayat observed that this was an act of “police terrorism”. The division bench upheld the decisions of the lower court as well as of the high court and asked Priyadarshi to pay the total amount within three months. Thaker will ultimately get compensation of Rs 8 lakh if interest for 21 years is added.