Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Monday ordered the state to pay a compensation of Rs 5,36,000 within four weeks to a tea garden worker in Alipurduar for his illegal detention for two months—Aug 6 to Oct 5—back in 2018, despite him being granted bail. The HC said the compensation was for the mental agony he suffered and the loss of his job at the tea garden.Joy Krishna Nag alias Joy Kumar Nag alias Rohit was the secretary of Bharatiya Tea Garden Union, a labour wing of BJP. He had three criminal cases against him at Kumargram Police Station but he was granted bail in all three. He was supposed to be released on Aug 6, 2018 but was detained up to Oct 5, 2018.Nag, who earned Rs 600 a day as a tea garden worker, demanded a compensation of Rs 20 lakh for the loss of employment and mental harassment and agony that he faced due to the illegal detention.The division bench of Justice Debangsu Basak and Justice Aryak Dutt held state’s plea that Nag’s custody was required for the purpose of producing him in one of the criminal cases “was not found satisfactory” and the bench held that he was not required to be kept in custody. On the quantum of compensation, the division bench said that though Nag had claimed Rs 20 lakh, he could not produce “adequate materials to sustain such claims”. Instead, the bench calculated Nag’s per-day earning of Rs 600 at the tea estate with 60—the number of days he was detained—which came to Rs 36,000.“The writ petitioner is entitled to be compensated for his mental agony and his plight for illegal detention. We venture to fix a compensation of Rs 5 lakh in addition to the loss of employment. In aggregate, therefore, we award a sum of Rs 5,36,000 as compensation to be paid by the state to the writ petitioner for the period of illegal detention that the writ petitioner suffered. Such compensation be paid within four weeks from date,” the division bench ordered.
