In a unique move, a tribal youth, seeking justice for an alleged fake case against him, carried his flimsy old parents on his shoulders and walked for about forty kilometers.
Hailing from a village Moroda in Odisha's district of Mayurbhanj, Kartik Singh has claimed that the Moroda Police lodged a "fake" FIR against him and locked him up in jail for eighteen days in 2009.
As a result of this, he was and is still 'outcaste' by his villagers.
According to Singh, he has no source of income or money in hand as none of the villagers give him work. Add on to this is the fact that he cannot move out to find work as has old parents to look after back home.
Hence, reminiscing the story of 'Shravan Kumar,' Singh carried his parents on his back, with them sitting on wooden baskets either side, for 40kms to seek justice.
Kartik said that he is an educated man, but can't get a job or get married as the case that was registered 6-7 years ago is still on in the court.
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According to advocate Prabhudan Marandi said, "It is not the first time something like this is happening. Several false cases are being filed."
Further talking about such cases, advocate Marandi said, Moroda Police of Mayurbhanj district has a regular track of doing such things, where the consequences are faced by the innocent people.
Advocate and social activist Kumar Patra added, "Kartik is drowned so much in debt that he cannot feed his parents or himself."
He also added that Kartik even asked the district collector for a job, as the society has abandoned him, but received no response.
"The state and the Central government have several schemes for the upliftment of the socially and financially backward classes, but everything is out of his reach and the Government representatives or political parties have not noticed anything," Patra said.
According to Kartik, all he wants is to prove himself as 'not guilty' in the eyes of his old parents before they pass away.