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“Here! take your bag, your purse, and the money you earned in these years.”
Arun Patel silently nodded to pick up his belongings. It had been 7 years but it looked like yesterday. His hair had turned gray and he had developed a small hunchback. His clothes appeared crumpled and unkempt.
***
He was a handsome tall young man in his late 30s and he had been picked up by the police for “raping a woman in the railway station”. Despite his pleading not guilty, he had been convicted for the same because of a lack of any other evidence in his favor.
The woman had allegedly reported the name of her perpetrator as Arun, and Patel was zeroed in by the police.
The media- both print and electronic, screamed daily, giving theories of his motive and modus operandi.
The media was also heard assassinating his character and citing that he could have definitely done this horrendous crime.
His neighbors started distancing themselves from his family and wouldn’t leave any opportunity to insult them or even abuse them.
The police brutally beat him up as they kept him in the police lock-up despite his continuous denial of being involved in any crime.
“Sir I have never been to the railway station for the past few years. That day also I was home with my family…..” but all his cries fell on deaf ears.
Each day passed in agony……for a crime he had never committed.
His wife and daughters came to the prison every day for the first few days, which gradually reduced. His lawyer, with the little fees that he got, couldn’t stand the arguments of the prosecution lawyer.
He had had a decent job and enough money to feed his family which he saw biting the dust.
His wife and daughters started living in penury apart from being shamed every day for what their father had allegedly done.
Suddenly his family stopped visiting him.
He just wanted to end his life.
Days turned into months and then years.
***
He was being released today after it had been established that he was wrongly convicted as a case of mistaken identity. The court ordered his acquittal immediately though he had already served his sentence of 7 years.
He started for his home where he came to know that his daughters had been shifted to an orphanage and his wife had left him.
His journey continues……
To prove his innocence
To make his ends meet
To bring back his daughters
And finally, to overcome the shock and trauma that these seven years gave him……
It seems that the journey is never-ending
.
