Teen held for crime committed before birth

In a major goof-up by the Bihar police, a teenager was arrested for an incident of arson which actually took place a year before his birth.

Reprimanding the police for such faux pas, the court ordered the release of the boy and asked the station house officer to find out the real culprit.

The incident took place in Bihar’s Siwan district, where 18-year-old Rajkumar was apprehended by the Panchrukhi police for his  alleged involvement in an arson incident that took place in 1995.

Back then, some youths had attacked a police party and pelted stones at them.
The boy and his parents pleaded his innocence with the police, but their plea fell on deaf ears.

He was eventually produced before the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM), where the arrested boy’s parents produced his birth certificate which showed he was born on February 15, 1996.

Justice served

Miffed over the folly, the judge summoned the station house officer (SHO) of Panchrukhi police station Mohammad Sayeed Ansari and took him to task.

“We enforced a pending warrant against a man called Rajkumar without realising that the Rajkumar we have arrested was not the original accused,” the SHO told the court.

“The person named in the warrant was someone else belonging to the same village. Hence the goof-up,” the SHO said while offering his apology.

The court ordered immediate release of the boy.  He has been living in Gujarat most of the time and recently had come to his ancestral village to spent time with his parents during the upcoming festive season.

The police have been let off with a warning to find out and arrest the real accused.