Thrissur, June 14 Two men from Kerala, one Sujeesh, a headload worker, and the other Joby, a vehicle broker, on Saturday are a relieved lot after the report came that the meat they possessed and were arrested and jailed for 35 days was not of sambar deer, instead it was cattle meat.
Sujeesh and his friend Joby were arrested on September 30 last year and for 35 days lodged in jail, after which they got bail.
The scientific report on the meat sample, when it surfaced on Saturday in public domain cleared the two as it was not that of sambar deer but was cattle meat.
The incident according to Sujeesh took place on September 30 last year at his house in Kerala's Thrissur.
"I was sleeping in my home and was woken up by local forest officials around 5:30 a.m. They asked me if I knew one person Joby and I said yes. Soon I was taken away by them," Sujeesh said.
"Following this I was questioned and not only was I emotionally attacked, I was beaten up also and was made to confess that the meat that I had was that of the endangered species of sambar deer," he added.
"When I returned from jail, my wife and the civil society treated me with disdain and she decided to divorce me as if I was a criminal. Later, she divorced me and the two children are with me and I have no job also. But now that the truth has come out that we did no wrong, I am deeply relieved," he said.
"I will not sit idle and will take legal steps against all those officials who created this false case against me and destroyed my life," Sujeesh added.
The counsel of Sujeesh said that with the report now revealing which clears him of all charges, they will take legal steps.
"The first thing we are going to do is to file a petition seeking to quash the FIR registered against my client. Then we will take legal recourse for all the pain and suffering Sujeesh had to undergo as he did nothing wrong," he added.
However, the forest officials are standing their ground and said they were able to retrieve pictures of everything and the crime the duo had committed from their mobile phones.
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