KOCHI: A 30-year-old man sentenced for a day’s imprisonment in a narcotic case escaped from the court on Friday. However, he landed in custody, just after a few hours. Later, the court remanded him for a fortnight after an additional case was registered on Saturday.Sharath Mukundan, 30, a native of Vadayar in Kottayam landed in soup over the issue. He was an accused in an NDPS case registered by the Excise Department for peddling ganja. The Kolenchery court had granted him a day’s imprisonment and a fine of Rs 10,000.
“Naturally, when a person is sentenced to a day’s imprisonment, he is kept in confinement for the day at the court itself and later let off. This man, however, decided to run before the end of the day,” said a police officer.
Officers said they suspected the man decided to run as he could not pay the fine. “He was not aware he would be out by the end of the day. Also, he didn’t want to pay the fine amount,” said a police officer.
The Puthencruz police registered a case under Section 225B for (Resistance or obstruction to lawful apprehension). On Friday evening, the man was caught by the Excise themselves.He was produced before the court on Saturday and he was remanded to judicial custody.