26 years later, UP man acquitted of possessing 4 bullets

Shamli (Uttar Pradesh), November 24

It took him 26 years to prove that he had been falsely implicated in a case of Arms Act that accused him of possessing four 12 bore bullets.

Mohd Salauddin, now 62, had been fighting a case in court for the past 26 years during which he attended more than 200 hearings.

He was 36 years old in 1995 when he was booked by the Muzaffarnagar police for allegedly possessing four bullets He was even arrested and spent 20 days in jail before he was granted bail.

According to Salauddin, "The charges against me were false and I had been framed by my relatives. I am a small farmer with just 10 bighas of land and have no other business. My whole life has gone in attending court hearings. The case took up all my earnings as well." Chief Judicial Magistrate Manoj Kumar, in his order, observed that the prosecution did not testify the charges nor produced any evidence before the court during the course of the trial. Their right to testify was withdrawn in 2019.

Salauddin, during the years, developed thrombosis in the foot, which caused him intense pain when he walked long distances.

His son, Ashu Ahmad, who was just two years old when the case was slapped on his father, said that the family has a monthly income of about Rs 20,000 and most of the money was spent on the case.

"We are a family of five and then there were the medical expenses of my father too," he added.

IANS