NEW DELHI, May 23: A man who was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder and attempted murder but was acquitted of all the charges after he spent 43 years in jail, has been finally released from the prison when he is 104 years old.
The man was released from Uttar Pradesh’s Kaushambi district jail after being acquitted by the Allahabad High Court earlier this month, officials said on Friday. Lakhan’s release was facilitated by the District Legal Services Authority (DLSA).
A resident of Gauraye village in the Kaushambi district, Lakhan, born on January 4 1921, according to his jail records, was arrested in 1977. Lakhan was allegedly involved in the death of a man named Prabhu Saroj, who was killed during a fight between two groups on August 16, 1977.
He, along with three other men, was then sentenced to life imprisonment by the District and Sessions Court Prayagraj in 1982. Subsequently, he appealed to the Allahabad High Court, which acquitted him after 43 years on May 2, 2025.
Of the four convicts who appealed against the trial court verdict in the High Court, three died during the case’s pendency. “Following the Court order and with the cooperation of the District Jail Superintendent, Lakhan was released from Kaushambi District Jail on Tuesday,” Additional District Judge Poornima Pranjal, Secretary of the Kaushambi DLSA, said.
He was then safely escorted to his daughter’s home in the Sharira police station area of the district, where he is currently residing.
(Manas Dasgupta)
