84 year old man convicted for smuggling – after 43 years

By Vijay Kumar

He is all of 84 years. He came to the Court, carried in a stretcher. He was charged with smuggling watches from Hong Kong in 1963, a good 43 years ago. And he was regularly appearing before the Court for the last 34 years. His case could not be effectively dealt with as all the documents were hand written and had become illegible owing to the passage of time.

What can the court do?

It asked him to plead guilty, which he promptly did after wasting 34 years of his life. The court took compassion on his failing health and the fact that he was regular to the court for 34 years and sentenced him to imprisonment for a few hours till rising of the court, according to a PTI report recently.