Man acquitted of stealing Rs186 after 37 years
2 min readPatna: A man in Bihar was acquitted by the court 37 years after he was accused of robbing a paltry Rs186 from a meat shop owner.
The court of additional chief judicial magistrate, Betia, SD Bharti acquitted Paras Raut of all charges on Tuesday for lack of evidence. Raut, a resident of Ramnagar in West Champaran district, had been making rounds of the court for close to four decades after the charges of robbery were registered with the local police station.
Mohammad Rasul, who runs a mutton shop, was returning home in the evening when some miscreants robbed him of Rs186, as well as his wrist watch, at gunpoint, after which he registered a case with the local Nautan police station. The incident took place on April 28, 1981.
Subsequently, the police completed an investigation into the case and the trial began. During the trial, which ran for a total of 13,505 days, the complainant in the case eventually refused to identify Raut, prompting the court to serve him acquittal.
“I am a relieved man now. For the past 37 years or so, I had been making the rounds of either the police or the court. I have got justice finally,” Raut told the media Wednesday. Reports said initially four people had been accused in the case, but as three of the accused remained on the run, the court finally ran a separate trial for Raut.
The long pendency of cases in courts remains a matter of serious concern in Bihar. As per an official report, currently there are over 1.67 million cases pending across the district courts of Bihar, while over 1.45 million cases are waiting for adjudication in the Patna High Court.
Reports further said that of the total number of cases pending in the Patna High Court, 16.65 per cent cases have been pending for over 10 years, whereas 30.12 per cent have been pending for less than two years.
Courtesy: GulfNews
