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New Delhi, Oct 28 (IANS) The Supreme Court has issued notice to the state of Maharashtra on a plea seeking compensation for the wrongful conviction and imprisonment of a man who spent 12 years in jail, six of which were awarded the death penalty, before being acquitted earlier this year.
A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta issued notice on the writ petition filed by Ramkirat Munilal Gaur, who was acquitted by the apex court on May 7, 2025.
A bench led by Justice Vikram Nath also directed that notices be issued to the Attorney General and Solicitor General, the highest and other highest law officers of the Union, for assistance in the case.
The top court also tagged two similar petitions filed by former death row convicts, Kattavellai alias Devakar and Sanjay, seeking compensation.
Gaur’s petition, filed under Article 32 of the Constitution, gives harrowing details of the wrongful arrest, fabricated evidence and tainted investigation that led to his conviction by a special POCSO court in Thane on March 5, 2019, and his death sentence confirmed by the Bombay High Court on November 25, 2021.
The Supreme Court, while acquitting him in May 2025, had made scathing comments on the conduct of the police and the prosecution. The top court observed that the key witnesses were “planted by the investigating agency with ulterior motives”.
It also held that Gaur was illegally arrested on 3 October 2013, noting that “there was no material in the investigation file from which even minimal suspicion could be raised against the accused appellant. The investigating authorities did not have even the slightest evidence which could point the finger of suspicion towards the accused appellant. Thus, there is lack of grounds to arrest the appellant in this case”.
The petition states that the petitioner was released on May 19 after undergoing death sentence for six years and spending twelve years in jail without receiving parole or furlough.
“The petitioner’s children were never able to visit him in jail,” the petition said. Upon release, he found his family “living in a kutcha house with plastic sheets for the roof”, the petition said, adding that he sold and mortgaged land and jewelery to pay his legal expenses.
The petition further said, “The petitioner, now 41 years of age, lost the prime years of his life due to a wrongful conviction, which was fundamentally motivated by an illegal and tainted investigation. These wrongs caused to him by the authorities of the respondent State Maharashtra should be compensated so that he can restart his life and support his family.”
Claiming violation of his fundamental rights under Article 21, the petition said the government should be held strictly accountable for the “illegal and tainted investigation, unfair prosecution and fabricated evidence” that led to his wrongful conviction.
“Merely releasing a person from imprisonment is not sufficient to rectify the wrong done to him,” the petition said. The petition has urged the Supreme Court to direct the State of Maharashtra to provide appropriate compensation for the economic and non-economic loss caused to him.
The petition on behalf of Gaur was filed by advocates Mihir Samson and Yash S Vijay along with Square Circle Clinic, NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad. Senior advocate Gopal Subramaniam appeared for the petitioner, while senior advocates Gopal Sankaranarayanan and Anita Shenoy represented the other two petitioners.
–IANS
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