Nineteen years after he evaded arrest for 'insulting' the national flag by wrapping a piece of meat with it, a 39-year-old man was arrested at nearby Payyanur town on Sunday, police said.
39-year-ols Ismail, who fled after he was sentenced to three months imprisonment by the Kerala High Court in 1990, was
arrested in the town by police after getting specific information. He was later sent to Kannur Central Prison to undergo the sentence as the case was still pending, they said.
Ismail, who used to run a meat shop, was sentenced to a one-year term by a court here after he confessed to having used the national flag to wrap the meat unknowingly. He approached the Kerala High Court for clemency. However, the court upheld the lower court verdict and commuted his sentence to three months.
Ismail reportedly left his native place for Mumbai and had been evading arrest all these years, police said.Ismail, however, maintains that he wrapped the meat using the national flag without knowing the seriousness of his act.
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