Lucknow: A small clerical error ensured a man in Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj spent an extra eight months in prison, despite getting bail.
According to a report published in India Today, in Prayagraj’s Siddharth Nagar jail, an accused was kept in prison for eight more months as his middle name was missing from the bail order.
The jail superintendent refused to release the undertrial as the bail order (issued in April) mentioned the accused’s name as ‘Vinod Baruaar’, while the name on the remand sheet mentioned his name as ‘Vinod Kumar Baruaar’.
The prison authorities have now been reprimanded by Allahabad High Court which condemned the “reprehensible conduct” of the jail superintendent.
A single-judge bench of Justice JJ Munir berated the authorities for flouting the bail order on a “small technicality”.
Justice Munir added, “The sole purpose of not complying with the bail orders for all these eight months appears to be, prima facie, an obstinate attitude of the jail administration in carrying out the orders of this Court. In the process, they have deprived a citizen of his liberty, without any just or reasonable cause, since April 2020 till date.”
A Sessions Court had cancelled the bail petition of accused Vinod Baruar on September 4, 2019, after which he approached the Allahabad High Court.
The HC granted him bail on April 9, 2020, but due to the difference in the remand order and the bail order, Baruaar was not released from prison until now.
He later filed an application for a correction of his name in the order, which is when the matter came to the notice of the high court.
The jail superintendent Rakesh Singh was asked to appear before the bench and asked him to submit why a departmental inquiry must not be recommended against him.
The court also warned Singh to remain careful in future and comply with its orders on the release of prisoners.
Baruaar was finally released from prison on December 8.
