The Madhya Pradesh High Court directed the state government to pay Rs. 42 lakhs to Chandresh Marskole for he spent more than thirteen years awaited for justice in a murder case.
The court allowed appeal filed by Marskole challenging the trail court order convicting him to life imprisonment in a murder case.
The appeal succeeds, and the judgement of conviction dated 31/07/09 passed in S.T No. 6/09, imposing on the Appellant the sentence of rigorous imprisonment for life for the offence of murder punishable u/s. 302 IPC and for three years for an offence u/s. 201 IPC, is set aside, the court order said.
The Appellant shall be set at liberty forthwith, the court order of Wednesday said.
“The Appellant (Chandresh Marskole) in this case, a Gond tribal, who with much difficulty, thanks to the provision for affirmative action in the Constitution, made it to a State run Medical College and was in the fourth (final) year of M.B.B.S and was on the verge of becoming a full-fledged doctor, a support for his family and a source of inspiration for his community”, the court order said.
“However, on account of this case, his entire life has been thrown into a disarray”, the court order said.
“This is a case that has been deliberately botched up and the Appellant falsely implicated to protect perhaps, the actual perpetrators of the offence who may have been known to the higher echelons of the state police”, the court said.
“Thus from the material on record, we find the conduct of the police is malicious and the investigation has been done with the intention of securing the conviction of the Appellant for an offence he did not commit and perhaps, for shielding Dr. Hemant Verma (PW1 – prosecution witness 1) whose involvement in this offence is strongly suspected though there is no material to hold affirmatively against him as he was not on trial”, the court order said.
“The proximity between Dr. Hemant Verma (of Gandhi Medical College, Bhopal) and the then IG Bhopal Mr. Shailendra Shrivastava, and the fact that PW1 Dr. Hemant Verma’s involvement in the case was far more than that of an innocent bystander in view of what has been discussed by us hereinabove, the investigation ought to have been done by a neutral agency like the Central Bureau of Investigation in the first place”, the court order said.
A division bench comprising Justice Atul Sreedharan and Justice Sunita Yadav said “He has spent over four thousand seven hundred and forty days in prison, first as an undertrial after being taken into custody on 20/09/08 (formal arrest was on 25/09/08) and thereafter as a convict”, the court order said. “Even by modest accounts, the Appellant would have earned at least rupees three lakhs per annum, whether he be in the service of the State or in private practice”, the court order said.
“And, in the facts and circumstances unique to this case, we award the Appellant a compensation of Rs. 42,00,000/- (rupees forty two lakhs), which shall be paid by the State within ninety days from the date of this order”, the court order said.
Thereafter, it shall attract an interest of 9% per annum till the date of payment, the court order said.
“He has spent over four thousand seven hundred and forty days in prison, first as an undertrial after being taken into custody on 20/09/08 (formal arrest was on 25/09/08) and thereafter as a convict”, the court order said.
“The case reveals a sordid saga of manipulative and preconceived investigation followed by a malicious prosecution, where the police have investigated the case with the sole purpose of falsely implicating the Appellant and perhaps, deliberately protecting a prosecution witness who may have been the actual culprit”, the court order said.
