By YKA Staff:
“Khaki wardi ko dekhkar ekdam ghabra jata hoon…samajhta hoon aage ye cheezein khatam hongi (I feel afraid of men in police uniform, but hope that this will change in future),” says Mohammed Aamir Khan. It was at night on the 20th of February, 1998 when he was “kidnapped” by plainclothesman as he was taking a walk near his home in Old Delhi, for his alleged involvement in low-intensity blasts that took place in Delhi and around in 1996 and ’97. He was falsely charged with a whole range of offences. “Itni umar nahi thi jitney mujhpar case lage (the number of cases I was charged with was greater than my age),” he quips.
According to the National Crime Records Bureau, there were 67.6% prisoners under trial in various jails in India in 2014. But, an even more disturbing figure in the report is 3,540, which is the number of undertrials that were detained in jail for more than five years. This figure, for those who might not be shocked by it, acquires greater significance when one learns of the human cost of it. Aamir spent 14 years in jail as an undertrial.
Watch as he shares his experience, and his enduring faith in the ‘system’ despite it, with The Quint.