Kolkata, December 12 (IANS)| The Kolkata High Court in a judgment has asked the state government to pay Rs 5 lakh as compensation for keeping a Nepalese national behind bars for 41 years without trial. The Kolkata High Court intervened after the matter came to light at the initiative of a human rights organisation, and the court released the man in March this year. Durga Prasad Timsina alias Deepak Joshi was arrested on 12 May 1980 from Darjeeling district for his alleged involvement in a murder case.
In January 1980, 20-year-old Deepak had gone to Magalbare market in Ilam to sell mustard. The youth is a resident of Lumbak village. The family of the young man did not come to know about him since that day, they had done a lot of research for the young man then. It was later revealed that he had gone to Darjeeling, where he was working. But, there he was arrested for the murder of a woman.According to court records, he had gone to Darjeeling as a man had promised him a job in the army, but the man who had promised him a job made him an accused in a murder case there. Since then he was imprisoned in various jails.
He spent his whole life in jail, during which a prisoner wanted to know about his condition, then the young man told him about the case.Another prisoner lodged in Dum Dum Central Jail told his friends about Durga Prasad. His friends reached out to Word HAM radio operators, who contacted Nepal Radio Club. The members of the club started searching for the family of the young man, then finally his family was traced to Lumbak village in eastern Nepal. The youth’s family contacted the Nepalese embassy and requested that he be reunited with their son.
The West Bengal State Legal Services Authority assessed the youth’s mental health condition. Later it was found that the IQ level of the youth is equal to that of a 10-year-old child.In April 2021, a division bench of then Chief Justice Thottathil B Radhakrishnan and Justice Aniruddha Roy, taking suo motu cognizance of the matter, directed that Durga Prasad be handed over to his relative Prakash Chandra Sharma Timsina and his return with the help of the Nepalese consulate. facility should be provided.The Kolkata High Court then asked the West Bengal government to submit its response on the compensation/damage awarded to him. On December 7, the High Court counsel, referring to the West Bengal Correctional Services Prisoners (Unnatural Death Compensation) Scheme, 2019, said that the maximum compensation payable under the scheme is Rs 5 lakh.
The State counsel did not debate this fact and submitted that the amount could be deposited through the Consulate of Nepal in the account of Deepak Joshi, who is presently in Nepal with his family members.Therefore, a division bench of Chief Justice Prakash Srivastava and Justice Rajarshi Bhardwaj directed the respondent/state to pay Rs.5 lakh by transferring the amount to Deepak Joshi’s account following due process of law during a period of six weeks.
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