A SCOT who has returned home after four years in a legal limbo in India falsely accused of drug dealing has said he does not bear a grudge towards his captors.
Former social worker James Toner, 48, spent 12 months in a filthy cell in Goa and a further three years locked in a legal nightmare after the claims were made against him.
After returning to his home in Castlemilk in Glasgow and being reunited with his family and friends yesterday, Mr Toner was in a forgiving mood towards the corrupt police officers who set him up for the crime in 2009.
Mr Toner, of Glasgow, said: "I have no anger. I have no resentment. I forgive everyone."
Initially jailed on remand, Mr Toner was released on bail after his accusers themselves came under investigation.
But, thanks to India's mercilessly slow justice system, he was trapped, penniless, in the state while he waited his final fate.
Allowed to leave this week, he caught the first flight he could book himself on.
"It only hit home when I was on the plane back," he said.
"I was looking at the in-flight map on the plane from Bombay. I saw London and then Glasgow appeared. That is when the tears came."
Waiting at Glasgow Airport were his mother, Agnes, 72, and his son Martin, 15. By then the tears had gone.
"All I felt was joy at seeing mum and my son." The last time Mrs Toner and Martin had seen James he was in an Indian jail, sharing a cell with 25 other men.
A kind guard let him out for part of the day. "I had a 7Up," he said. "That was some day."
Mr Toner loves India and he says he has learned from the country, becoming deeply spiritual and forgiving. He travelled to the country after his life fell apart after his brother was brutally murdered, in 2004.
"I went to India - it's an old cliche - to find myself," he said, sitting, Lotus position, on his mother's sofa in Castlemilk.
One day in 2009 he decided to buy some hashish for personal use. As a result he was snared in a bogus police sting and told he had two-and-a-half kilos of the drug.
Officers said he could get rid of the charges by paying $10,000. He did not have the money and was embroiled in what was to become a major international scandal. Yet he has no regrets.
"Those four years - you may not believe this - but I would not swap them for the world. I am really grateful to India for what I have learned about myself. I live in the moment now. I don't worry about the future.
"I don't feel any blame. I went to buy some hash that day. Whatever happened next, I caused it. It was my fault.
"I have no anger. This is not the worst thing that has happened in my life. Maybe I used up all the anger I had when my brother died."
Mr Toner - who has had the backing of thousands of people on Twitter and Facebook - is now finishing a book about his experiences. But he admits to some dread at being back in Scotland.
"Before I came I almost had a panic attack," he said. "I thought 'I am going to be living in a materialist world. I am not used to that I have changed, I have evolved. There was real fear."
Mrs Toner watched and smiled as her son spoke. "He has no anger any more," she says. "He has mellowed. I am so proud of the way he is handling this."
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