Malappuram: The Ponnani Police have landed in the soup after jailing an innocent man in a case of mistaken identity. Alungal Aboobacker, who was wrongly arrested, spent four days at the Central Prison in Tavanur before a relative spotted the mistake leading to his release.
An arrest warrant was issued for Vadakkeppurath Aboobacker on the complaint of his wife Aishabi. She had filed a complaint with the family court at Tirur against Aboobacker for not providing maintenance. The court sentenced him to six months and fined Rs 4 lakh.
But in search of Vadakkeppurath Aboobacker, the police knocked on the doors of Alungal Aboobacker. In their defence, the house name of Alungal Aboobacker's mother and that of Vadakkeppurath Aboobacker was a perfect match.
“We don't get the file from the court when a warrant is issued. Here, we only had a name with an address. The person we inquired at the address also mentioned the same house. There was no remark about the complainant in the warrant issued from the family court. So it is not possible to confirm the actual convict connected with the name of the complainant or the wife in this case,” an officer with the Ponnani Police told Onmanorama.
Moreover, the guiltless Aboobacker was not on good terms with his wife, so he went along thinking she might have filed a complaint.
“The police reached my house last Monday and asked me to come along. I co-operated thinking my wife had filed a complaint. I asked them for the details in the warrant, it was written as Vadakkeppurath Aboobacker. Vadakkeppurath is my mother’s house name. I told the police that I was known as Aboobacker Alungal and not Vadakkeppurath Aboobacker. But the police did not consider it,” Alungal Aboobacker said.
