Cops shatter trader’s peace, put him behind bars for 42 days

“It was unbelievable. I still remember that day October 7, 1999. I was sitting in the shop, putting money in the small safe built in the wall when they came looking. They told me I was a PO. I did not even know what the word meant. I kept telling them it was a mistake, I pleaded, I explained. In turn, the two constables abused and slapped me. It was then that I realised they were serious and I had better go to the police station and sort this out,” says Kumar.

“It was at thepolice station that I learnt I had been arrested under the NDPS Act, not that I knew what it was. They told me that I was wanted in an NDPS case of New Delhi Railway police station of 1987. When I asked Inspector Mahinder Singh to check the records, he instructed the cops there to teach me how to talk to senior officials. And then they beat me up, asked me to call and inform my family and put me in the lock-up in Saraswati Vihar. My family members came and pleaded but no one listened,” he recalls.

From there he was shifted to Tihar, after his bail was refused. Kumar says that he was confused with Ramesh, the criminal who had given his name and address when he was arrested. “We had a house in Rohtak, which we sold after my father died. Ramesh had given my name and that address when he had jumped bail more than 10 years ago. And now I paid for it. Because there is no system for redressal. I had hoped that at least the judges would listen, but even they did not,” he says, quietly.

And so he was sent toTihar jail, where he found out that NDPS was an acronym for at least 10 years in prison and was a non-bailable offence. “I immediately informed my family and they hired a battery of lawyers to get me out. Not that it helped,” he says.

Then began his education in the country’s judicial system. “I can’t tell you the kind of things that the judges said because I don’t want to go to jail again. Let’s just say it was horrifying and well, you are considered guilty even before the sentence is pronounced,” he says with a shudder.

He resigned himself to a lifetime in Tihar, which in his own words is a synonym for hell. “I don’t know how to put it in words. It can’t be described. Life lost all meaning. But no one really mistreated me primarily because I could pay for the services there. You know everything has a price and I must have shelled out an amazing amount of money during my stay there. But I don’t grudge them, it was not their fault.”

“After the first two days, I fell ill and the doctors diagnosedthat I was suffering from hypertension. Since then I have been taking medicine for it. I lost my health and my reputation. My business interests suffered. My son, he was just thirteen, he stopped going to school and started sitting at the shop. The list is endless,” he sighs.

Kumar’s release came when his fingerprints were taken and sent to Forensic Science Laboratory. “My friends who had accompanied the cops there tell me that the director of the place said the CFSL report of Ramesh’s fingerprints taken in 1987, clearly states the man who claimed to be Ravinder was Ramesh and they had his fingerprints as he had been arrested earlier in another crime. And Kali Ram, the investigating officer, sifted through his papers and agreed,” he says.

The police then filed an application in court stating the same and on November 17, he was released from jail. However, nightmares still haunt him.“I filed a case against the erring cops and they ordered an inquiry into this. Subsequently, I met the LieutenantGovernor, who referred me to the Commissioner of Police, who ordered an inquiry into this. I am also planning to file a compensation suit. I shall fight this and fight it to the end, so that they think twice before subjecting someone else to what I went through,” he vows.