{ "record_id": "CW-2008-0023", "status": "current", "merged_id": "CWC-0947", "alias_merged_ids": [], "display_title": "Kolkata Man v. The State of West Bengal & Anr.", "display_title_redacted": "Kolkata Man v. The State of West Bengal & Anr.", "state": "West Bengal", "district": "Kolkata", "district_at_time": null, "city_town": "Kolkata", "police_station_or_unit": "Narcotics Control Bureau, Calcutta", "court": "Calcutta High Court", "court_as_verified": "Calcutta High Court", "bench": null, "case_title": "Kolkata Man v. The State of West Bengal & Anr.", "case_number": "C.R.A. No. 628 of 2005", "citation": "(2008) 3 CALLT 345", "judges": [ "Girish Chandra Gupta", "Kishore Kumar Prasad" ], "judgment_date": "2008-05-16", "date_precision": "day", "judgment_year": 2008, "incident_date": "1999-07-19", "incident_year": 1999, "category": "Other", "admin_category": "misconduct", "admin_subcategory": "illegal_detention_false_imprisonment", "subcategory": "illegal_detention_false_imprisonment", "subcategory_display": "illegal detention false imprisonment", "protest_override_heuristic": false, "outcome_type": "adverse_finding_compensation", "sections": [ "NDPS Act s.21", "NDPS Act s.29", "NDPS Act s.69", "CrPC s.482" ], "officers": [ { "name": null, "rank": "Officer (P.W.4)", "role": "named_only", "unit": "Narcotics Control Bureau, Calcutta", "publish_grade": "unnamed", "gate_reasons": [ "ledger:no_row", "key2:no_row" ], "ledger_role": null, "key2": null, "key2_agy": null, "key2_claude": null, "key2_union": null, "key2_gemapi": null, "key2_openrouter": null, "key2_gpt56": null, "grok": null, "jev_risk": null, "jev_p_culpable": null, "key2_gpt": null, "later_outcome": null, "name_public": null, "display": "Officer (P.W.4), Narcotics Control Bureau, Calcutta" }, { "name": null, "rank": "Superintendent (P.W.7)", "role": "named_only", "unit": "Narcotics Control Bureau, Calcutta", "publish_grade": "unnamed", "gate_reasons": [ "ledger:no_row", "key2:no_row" ], "ledger_role": null, "key2": null, "key2_agy": null, "key2_claude": null, "key2_union": null, "key2_gemapi": null, "key2_openrouter": null, "key2_gpt56": null, "grok": null, "jev_risk": null, "jev_p_culpable": null, "key2_gpt": null, "later_outcome": null, "name_public": null, "display": "Superintendent (P.W.7), Narcotics Control Bureau, Calcutta" } ], "officer_count": 2, "victims": [ { "age": null, "gender": "male", "name": null, "descriptor": "Kolkata man" } ], "victims_redacted": null, "anonymised": false, "victim_count": 1, "sentence_type": "compensation_only", "sentence_max_years": null, "compensation_inr": 100000, "force": "central_armed", "primary_source_url": "https://www.courtkutchehry.com/judgements/893167/md-salim-akthar-vs-the-state-of-west-bengal-and-another/", "secondary_sources": [], "summary": "The judgment of the Calcutta High Court records the following account. On 19 July 1999 NCB officers intercepted a Kolkata man and Debashish Dutta at Central Restaurant, B.B. Ganguly Street, Calcutta; 570 grams of heroin was recovered from Dutta and nothing from a Kolkata man, though the arrest memo falsely showed recovery from him. The trial court convicted both men under Sections 21/29 NDPS Act with 10 years RI each, and a Kolkata man spent over 9 years in jail. The court held a Kolkata man was arrested groundlessly and coerced into signing a confessional statement drafted by P.W.4, that the officers acted otherwise than in good faith so Section 69 NDPS gave no protection, and that he was a victim of unlawful arrest and detention. Allowing the appeal, the court set aside the conviction and directed Rs. 1,00,000 token compensation within twelve weeks under its inherent powers, relying on Nilabati Behera, D.K. Basu and Shakila Abdul Gafar Khan. Matters not addressed in the cited judgment text are not recorded here.", "summary_verified": "On 19 July 1999 NCB officers intercepted a Kolkata man and Debashish Dutta at Central Restaurant, B.B. Ganguly Street, Calcutta; 570 grams of heroin was recovered from Dutta and nothing from a Kolkata man, though the arrest memo falsely showed recovery from him. The trial court convicted both men under Sections 21/29 NDPS Act with 10 years RI each, and a Kolkata man spent over 9 years in jail. The court held a Kolkata man was arrested groundlessly and coerced into signing a confessional statement drafted by P.W.4, that the officers acted otherwise than in good faith so Section 69 NDPS gave no protection, and that he was a victim of unlawful arrest and detention. Allowing the appeal, the court set aside the conviction and directed Rs. 1,00,000 token compensation within twelve weeks under its inherent powers, relying on Nilabati Behera, D.K. Basu and Shakila Abdul Gafar Khan.", "court_quote": "The appellant in this case was arrested groundlessly by the officers of NCB; the officers in further abuse of their power coerced the appellant to subscribe his signature to a confessional statement drafted by the P.W.4", "court_quote_para": "35", "confidence": "high", "verdict": "accept", "verdict_note": "NDPS acquittal with Rs.1L compensation for groundless arrest and coerced confession by NCB officers.", "verification_status": "V2", "verification_badge": "V2 · Externally reported", "tier_badge": "Externally reported", "tier": "Tier A — Externally reported or officially recorded", "tier_history": [ "Tier A — Externally reported or officially recorded" ], "allegations": [ { "category": "Other", "primary": true, "position": "Material fact supported", "position_explainer": "Reliable material supports a specifically documented fact relevant to that allegation, not necessarily the full allegation, causation, intent, unlawfulness, or responsibility.", "official_finding_relation": "supports allegation" } ], "institutional_response": [ { "date": "2008-05-16", "action_type": "Order issued", "status": "Concluded", "authority": "Calcutta High Court", "independence": "External", "legal_effect": "Binding", "description": "The Calcutta High Court recorded adverse findings against police personnel and ordered Rs 100,000.", "disposition": "Compensation ordered · Supports allegation (for the compensated wrong only)", "source": "(2008) 3 CALLT 345", "recheck": "Not yet re-checked." } ], "later_proceedings": [], "final_outcome_url": null, "followup_history": [ { "date": "2026-09-19", "scope": "Round-8 full re-verification: published record re-checked against the judgment text (outcome, officers, quote, key facts) plus methodology-compliance pass", "method": "skills-guided adversarial re-verification of the published record against the judgment text (reverify/t1-*/adversarial-8.jsonl)", "result": "holds", "corrections_applied": [] } ], "followup_status": "checked", "last_checked": "2026-09-19", "link_checked_per_url": [ { "url": "https://www.courtkutchehry.com/judgements/893167/md-salim-akthar-vs-the-state-of-west-bengal-and-another/", "link_checked": null } ], "source_assessment": { "established": null, "basis": null }, "v3_basis": null, "publication_basis": null, "reviews": [], "retracted": { "is_retracted": false }, "fidelity_checked": true, "verified_by": [ "chunk-58" ], "merged_case_id": "GAP2-14-001", "officers_named_public": 0, "record_flag": null, "service": "police", "watch": "babuwatch" }