Four local officials were deposed Tuesday after it was revealed a farmer who had lodged a complaint had been detained in mental hospitals in central China's Henan Province for over six years.

Xu Lindong, a farmer from Daliu Town, Yuanhui District, Luohe City, complained to the central government from 1997 to 2003 on behalf of his handicapped friend, Zhang Guizhi, whose land had been occupied by a third party.

Xu was thrown into the Zhumadian Municipal Mental Hospital in Oct. 2003 and was transferred to Luohe Municipal Mental Hospital in Dec. 2009. After being held in mental institutions for more than six years, he finally returned home on April 25, 2010.

Investigators found three local officials - Yang Yaoqin, deputy director of the district's Supervision Bureau; Chen Huijun, an official with the district's Bureau of Letters and Calls; and Song Changqing, head of the town's Family Planning Service Center - fabricated evidence in 2003 to put Xu into mental hospitals. The three have been deposed.

Shi Hongtao, the Daliu township committee secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) at the time, was also deposed from his current position as an official with the Yuanhui District Government for not preventing the farmer's detention.

The town's CPC committee secretary Li Qilong told Xinhua, "I was astonished to read about Xu's mistreatment. I came to work at this town after Feb. 2008 and was not aware of the issue until the media coverage. The people who did this should be held accountable."

Xu and his family told Xinhua that Xu was not mentally ill.

"Xu does not have mental illness and nor do any other family members. Xu was wrongly hospitalized because some officials wanted to prevent him from lodging complaints," said Xu's brother Xu Linpu.

Xu's fellow villager, Xu Linzhuang, told Xinhua that Xu was smart and literate. There was no way he was mentally ill.

As for the future plan, Xu said, "I want justice for what I have been put through."

Xu has received new clothes, rice, flour, cooking oil and 500 yuan (73.24 U.S. dollars) from the town government and the district civil affairs bureau to meet his everyday needs. Li Qilong said, "As for Xu's future life, we are trying to help him apply for the guaranteed subsistence allowances provided by the government."

Zhang Shaoming, a lawyer with Tianming Law Firm in central China's Hubei Province, said there are legal loopholes under which a person can be classified as mentally ill. These loopholes have been exploited by some to wrongly throw others into mental institutions, he added.