The Bombay High Court has directed the Maharashtra government to pay ₹50,000 each as compensation to advocate Yogeshwar Kawade and former serviceman Avinash Date for wrongful handcuffing by police in a 2010 case. A division bench comprising Justices Urmila Joshi-Phalke and Nivedita Mehta observed that the act amounted to “unwarranted humiliation and indignity,” stressing that such treatment violates the fundamental rights and dignity of citizens.

The incident occurred in August 2010 at Talegaon Police Station in Amravati district, Maharashtra, where the two had gone to lodge a complaint against a man who allegedly damaged Date’s car. However, the accused filed a cross-complaint alleging that Kawade and Date had threatened and assaulted him. Acting on this, police detained the duo after midnight, allegedly forced them to strip and sit in their undergarments. The next day, they were handcuffed and transported by a state transport bus to a magistrate’s court, where they were later granted bail.

The petitioners argued that the police action was illegal and defamatory, highlighting that they were neither habitual offenders nor hardened criminals, making the use of handcuffs unjustified. While the Superintendent of Police, Amravati, informed the court that departmental action had been taken against the officers involved, the bench ruled that such measures alone were not sufficient. The court ordered the compensation to be paid within eight weeks, stating that judicial redress was necessary to repair the legal injury and uphold constitutional protections.