BANGALORE, India: Police in the southern Indian state of Karnataka have arrested a 78-year-old man who was accused of stealing two buffaloes and a calf some 58 years back.
Ganapati Vitthal Wagore was 20 in 1965 when he was first arrested for the alleged theft, along with another man. Police said they were set free on bail but later disappeared after could not be traced until recently. His co-accused died in 2006.
Last week, a court freed Wagore on bail on account of his old age after his re-arrest.
The case had gone cold but it resurfaced a few weeks ago when a police team looked through old files of pending investigations and decided to make a final attempt to find the men. The theft took place in Bidar district of Karnataka state but Wagore was caught from different villages in neighbouring Maharashtra state both times.
According to the police, Wagore and the other man, Krishna Chander, had admitted to stealing the animals in 1965, following which they were produced before a local court that granted them conditional bail. But after being released, the two men never respond to summons and warrants.
Police teams were sent to villages in Karnataka as well as neighbouring Maharashtra but the two men, who worked as agricultural labourers, could not be spotted.
