Indian man to face trial in theft case dating 58 years

By Anadolu staff

NEW DELHI (AA) - Police in the Indian state of Karnataka traced an elderly man and presented him before a court for allegedly stealing two buffaloes and a calf, in 1965.

Police in the Bidar district said Ganapati Wagore, who is now in his late 70s and hails from a village in neighboring Maharashtra state, was named in the case when he was 20, alongside another suspect.

Officials said after a complaint was first received, the pair was arrested. "He (Wagore) was almost in a jail for a year and was released on bail in the case," Bidar's top police official Chennabasavanna Langoti told Anadolu.

But after he was granted bail, he never turned to face trial and was declared a proclaimed offender.

Wagore then worked as an agricultural laborer in Karnataka.

Recently, when the top district cop formed a committee to look at the longest pending cases in the district, the case was revived.

"The accused was missing all these years and after we got a tip off, we managed to trace him last week,” said Langoti. “Looking at his age, he was granted bail on the same day,"

Langoti added that Wagore was arrested from his native village in Maharashtra after a search operation.
The complainant and the other person accused in the case died years ago, according to police.

Langoti said Wagore has again been released but he will face trial in the court.

"Now it is up to the court, when would they close the case," he said.