The Delhi high court on Wednesday issued notice to the Central government on a plea seeking enhanced damages filed by the wife of a businessman who was shot dead in a case of mistaken identity 14 years ago by a Delhi police team in Connaught Place.
A bench of Acting Chief Justice A.K. Sikri and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw issued notice to the Union home ministry and sought its response by February 23 on the plea by Pradeep Goyal’s widow Neema, seeking enhancement of the `15 lakh compensation awarded to her in July this year by a single-judge bench.
While issuing notices to the ministry, the high court also allowed Goyal to withdraw the compensation amount, already deposited by the ministry with the high court’s registry as per the court’s July 4 order.
“In the meantime, the appellant is at liberty to withdraw the amount of compensation deposited with the registry of the Delhi high court without prejudice to her rights,” said the bench.
The 10 members of the police team, led by erstwhile assistant commissioner of police S.S. Rathi, which had fired upon Goyal’s car on March 31, 1997 near Statesman House in Connaught Place, were sentenced to life imprisonment in the sensational case. Goyal was killed along with another businessman Jagjit Singh, while the third businessman Tarun Preet Singh accompanying them in their car was seriously injured.
The police had mistaken Singh as wanted gangster Mohd Yaseen.
Neema and Jaspal Kaur, Singh’s wife, had earlier sought `2 crores each as compensation but the high court had awarded them `15 lakhs each.