Now Reading: Japanese student gets Rs 75,000 after 19 days in Bengaluru jail
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Japanese student gets Rs 75,000 after 19 days in Bengaluru jail
Hirotoshi Tanaka, a Japanese student who arrived in Bengaluru in 2019 to learn English, was arrested after an altercation at an English academy and spent 19 days in Bengaluru Central Prison. The…
The Story in Brief
Hirotoshi Tanaka, a Japanese student who arrived in Bengaluru in 2019 to learn English, was arrested after an altercation at an English academy and spent 19 days in Bengaluru Central Prison. The Karnataka State Human Rights Commission later ruled he was unnecessarily kept in judicial custody and recommended compensation of Rs 75,000, which the state government paid in April 2021, nearly seven years after his arrival.
Tanaka, who struggled with the legal system and lacked his prescribed medicines for ADHD and insomnia, said he learned about bail and court procedures from fellow inmates. One prisoner, Shankar, a triple-murder convict who became a devout Christian, accompanied him to hearings and helped arrange bail. Tanaka later called Shankar his 'closest friend' and still wishes to meet him.
The Indian Opinion
This story is a convenient narrative of callous bureaucracy versus a hapless foreigner. But the human rights commission's Rs 75,000 award and Tanaka's own account of supportive jail staff and inmates complicate that picture. The real test is whether the Karnataka government will now train police and magistrates to provide basic language and legal assistance to non-English-speaking foreigners, or if this remains a one-off payout.
Sources (2): timesofindia.indiatimes.com, timesofindia.indiatimes.com (2)
This story was synthesised by AI from the 2 sources linked above.
Updated: this story now draws on 2 sources.
