33-year-old stolen oxen case pending

NEW DELHI, Oct. 24 (UPI) -- The two oxen and four other suspects have since died but Surajnath Yadav of India is still fighting his cattle rustling charge filed 33 years ago.

The 46-year-old Yadav was 13 when he and the other suspects were accused of stealing the oxen from a house in Nawada Ben village in India's eastern Bihar state in June of 1973, reports the BBC. The oxen were recovered seven months later but the case goes on.

In the intervening years, death claimed the oxen, the other four accused, the investigating officer and the father-and-son complainants, says the report, but not the criminal case in which Yadav faces a maximum of three years in prison if convicted.

The report said for 33 years, Yadav has been routinely trekking about 12 miles from his village, spending about $2 each time to report at the district headquarters.

In 1997, a judge ordered the case closed but a brother of the complainant appealed the ruling, which is pending although that brother also has since died.

The appeal is being pursued by another brother of the complainant.