In what appears to be a major goof up by the police, a septuagenarian woman is languishing in jail on the charge of kidnapping a minor boy. Ironically, the boy, who surfaced recently, said he was never kidnapped. However, the seventy one-year-old Kamla, a widow, suffering from major ailments, continues to be behind the bars.

The faux pas was committed by the police early this year when 11-year-old Rahul was found missing from his residence at Alamganj in the state capital. 

Amid hue and cry by Rahul’s relatives, the needle of suspicion was pointed towards Kamla, who lived in the neighbourhood. She was suspected to be behind Rahul’s kidnapping because the boy’s parents found label of Rahul’s shoes inside Kamla’s house.

The old widow was thrashed mercilessly on the suspicion of kidnapping. When police tried to intervene, the locals gheraoed the police station and forced the cops to arrest the widow.

Bowing to the public pressure, the police arrested and produced her before a magistrate who, in turn, forwarded her to Beur Central jail.

 A bruised and battered Kamla, who was assaulted by public despite pleading innocence, fell sick soon after being sent to jail. She was eventually shifted to the jail hospital where she remained unwell for days.

In the meantime, last month the missing boy Rahul turned up from nowhere and told the police that he had run away on his own. “I was not good at studies. But my parents kept on pressurising me to study more. Fed up, I ran away,” he told the police as well as court.

Kamla’s relatives have now met the Senior SP (SSP) of Patna, Manu Maharaj, and complained to him that the widow was in a precarious condition in jail and had not been released even though the said boy had returned home and recorded his statement before the court.

“Our intention is not to harass anyone. But at times, police act under public pressure,” said DSP (Patna City) Rajesh Kumar, adding that Kamla would get justice soon.