FAIZABAD (Uttar Pradesh): Life, for Jagjivan Ram Yadav begins at 70. He was accused of a murder back in 1968 and spent 38 years without trial shuttling between the walls of a prison and a mental asylum and having no idea what the future would hold for his wife and two-year-old son.
He walked out of Faizabad jail three days ago after the Supreme Court in February directed the Lucknow Bench of Allahabad High Court to release him on bail.
Though yet to recover from the long stint away from society and at sea at the change that has taken place in all these years, Jagjivan is ready to let bygones be bygones and has not lost faith in the judiciary.
"The apex court's directive to release me on bail has given me a fresh lease of life," the gaunt old man said.
He is for the time being living in a little hamlet called Moti-ka-Purwa in Khadbhadiya village in the district along with his wife Patto who had long given him up for dead and donned the white garments of widows until informed otherwise about a year ago.
For the moment, Jagjivan has no plans of visiting his ancentral village of Mithaura, perhaps because the memories it evokes are not very comforting. It was there that he was arrested for the murder of his sister-in-law Gulabo Devi after a case was registered against him on January 29, 1968.
"All I want is peace," he said and added that he had pleaded innocence a but the pleas went unheeded.
The only evidence linked to the case was the day the murder was registered by someone named Badri Prasad Tiwari and that Jagjivan was produced before the Faizabad sessions court on December 7, 1968. In 1970, Jagjivan was declared mentally unstable and transferred from the prison to a mental asylum in Varanasi.
His son Keshav Ram is now 40 and has just got back from Ludhiana in Punjab to "take care of my ailing father in the best possible manner". He would shortly be taking Jagjivan for a thorough medical check-up to a hospital.
Keshav said he was too small when his father was arrested but, after a while, his mother Patto Devi decided to migrate to her father's Kadbhadiya village as some relatives had usurped their land and property in Mithaura.
The village headman of Kadbhadiya Satyendra Singh said its residents were very happy about the acquittal and assured that the 'gram sabha' (village committee) would extend all possible help for transferring land to Jagjivan under the Indira Awas Yojana.
Jagjivan's advocate R K Yadav said he was examining various legal aspects to claim "Rs 20 lakh in damages for the prolonged jail term without proper trial. It would help him live with honour".
Additional District Sessions Judge L C Tiwari on Thursday acquitted Jagjivan giving him the "benefit of doubt".
Senior government counsel O P Sinha said the prosecution dropped the case due to insufficent evidence or witness against him felt he should be "honourably aquitted".
The Supreme Court took suo motu cognizance of the matter after a news item appeared in a Delhi newspaper recording the plight of Jagjivan.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/a...ow/1500343.cms
He walked out of Faizabad jail three days ago after the Supreme Court in February directed the Lucknow Bench of Allahabad High Court to release him on bail.
Though yet to recover from the long stint away from society and at sea at the change that has taken place in all these years, Jagjivan is ready to let bygones be bygones and has not lost faith in the judiciary.
"The apex court's directive to release me on bail has given me a fresh lease of life," the gaunt old man said.
He is for the time being living in a little hamlet called Moti-ka-Purwa in Khadbhadiya village in the district along with his wife Patto who had long given him up for dead and donned the white garments of widows until informed otherwise about a year ago.
For the moment, Jagjivan has no plans of visiting his ancentral village of Mithaura, perhaps because the memories it evokes are not very comforting. It was there that he was arrested for the murder of his sister-in-law Gulabo Devi after a case was registered against him on January 29, 1968.
"All I want is peace," he said and added that he had pleaded innocence a but the pleas went unheeded.
The only evidence linked to the case was the day the murder was registered by someone named Badri Prasad Tiwari and that Jagjivan was produced before the Faizabad sessions court on December 7, 1968. In 1970, Jagjivan was declared mentally unstable and transferred from the prison to a mental asylum in Varanasi.
His son Keshav Ram is now 40 and has just got back from Ludhiana in Punjab to "take care of my ailing father in the best possible manner". He would shortly be taking Jagjivan for a thorough medical check-up to a hospital.
Keshav said he was too small when his father was arrested but, after a while, his mother Patto Devi decided to migrate to her father's Kadbhadiya village as some relatives had usurped their land and property in Mithaura.
The village headman of Kadbhadiya Satyendra Singh said its residents were very happy about the acquittal and assured that the 'gram sabha' (village committee) would extend all possible help for transferring land to Jagjivan under the Indira Awas Yojana.
Jagjivan's advocate R K Yadav said he was examining various legal aspects to claim "Rs 20 lakh in damages for the prolonged jail term without proper trial. It would help him live with honour".
Additional District Sessions Judge L C Tiwari on Thursday acquitted Jagjivan giving him the "benefit of doubt".
Senior government counsel O P Sinha said the prosecution dropped the case due to insufficent evidence or witness against him felt he should be "honourably aquitted".
The Supreme Court took suo motu cognizance of the matter after a news item appeared in a Delhi newspaper recording the plight of Jagjivan.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/a...ow/1500343.cms
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