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Assam man spends 16 days in jail for a crime he didn’t commit. Cops say sorry
The 2014 kidnapping FIR, in which Hussain Ahmed was arrested, was a case of elopement filed by the father of a woman who ran away with a man. He later accepted the marriage but didn’t bother to withdraw the FIR
A 45-year-old man in Assam’s Karimganj district was arrested in a 2014 kidnapping case and spent 16 days in custody before the court figured that the police had arrested an innocent. Hussain Ahmed was released on Friday and a show cause notice issued to the police
“It was an unfortunate incident and we have apologised to the family,” Karimganj police officer Shyamananda Sinha said.
Hussain Ahmed hasn’t refused to speak to the media. His family said he was too traumatized by the entire episode and has been unable to find work. “”Now my son has come out and the court has declared him innocent but the society will not accept him... He is trying hard to find work but some people have already refused to take him,” his father, Ala Uddin, said. Before he was arrested, Hussain Ahmed worked as a driver with a local travel agency.
Hussain Ahmed’s wife Rushna Begum said their nightmare started shortly before midnight on May 12 when a posse of police personnel turned up at their house in Karimganj’s Patharkandi village.
The family was preparing for Eid celebrations when the police personnel came.
“We repeatedly requested them to let him stay at home for Eid,” Rushna Begum said.
“They broke down our door and caught him like he is a big criminal,” she said. “We want to tell the police not to do this to anyone in future because this ruins the lives of innocent people forever.”
She said the police had apologised to the family after the court cleared him. “But this will not help us to forget the trauma of the last two weeks.”
Police officer Shyamananda Sinha said the mix-up happened because the suspect and Hussain Ahmed not only had the same name but also their father’s name is the same.
“When we went to the house, they also did not show us any other documents. We were doing our duty as per the warrant,” he said. Rushna Begum said the cops were unwilling to listen and didn’t tell them why he was being arrested.
It turns out that the 2014 kidnapping case, in which Hussain Ahmed was arrested, was a case of elopement filed by the father of a woman who ran away with a man. The woman’s father, according to the police, subsequently reconciled to his daughter’s marriage and has accepted the couple to the family.
But according to police records, he did not withdraw his complaint. “We are also trying to find the girl’s father who lodged the complaint in 2014 to identify the actual person. The department regrets this incident and we have apologised to the family,” police said.
