Declared innocent in ’75,man released from jail at last

Mool Chand was acquitted in 1975. Since he was suffering from a mental disorder,the court ordered that he should be in a “safe custody” decided by the government.

For the next nine years,he remained in jail as the government took time to decide that the right place for him was a mental hospital. He spent 21 years in the mental hospital. After the hospital declared him fit,he was sent to jail five years ago ¿ though he was neither a convict,nor an undertrial.

Not that the jail authorities did not know that they were keeping Mool Chand illegally. They wrote several letters to the government,but there was no response.

“It is the height of authorities’ negligence. My brother has lost everything,his wife Jyoti married another man,” said Saroj Devi.

In August,the Prison Department once again wrote to the state government after The Indian Express published a report on Mool Chand. Last week,with the green signal from the government,the jail authorities called Shanti Devi. The family believed Mool Chand had died in jail.

“I was surprised to know he was still alive,” said Saroj Devi,who is living in Bijnore with her family — husband Jagdish Sharma,a temple priest,and sons Pradeep and Shiv Charan. Saroj’s mother Shanti Devi (93),also stays with them. Shanti Devi’s two other sons Laxman and Sri Ram died around 15 years ago. Mool Chand is eldest of her four children. She is too weak to come to hospital,but is anxious to see her son,said Saroj Devi.

Before he went to jail,Mool Chand stayed with their maternal grandmother Nanki Devi in Moradabad’s Vir Shah Hajari. Nanki Devi had adopted him when he was 15 years old. Mool Chand and Jyoti had a six-month-old daughter and Nanki Devi had transferred her property in his name.

After his arrest in 1970,Nanki Devi contested the case. After the local court convicted him,she filed an appeal in the Allahabad High Court,mortgaging her land.

“After my father Sukhbeer and Nanki Devi died,no one pursued it as my mother is illiterate,” said Saroj Devi. When the authorities did not release Mool Chand even after his acquittal,his wife Jyoti returned to her father’s home and remarried. “Then,some neighbours said Mool Chand had died in jail,” said Saroj Devi.

Moradabad police lodged the case after Mool Chand allegedly killed a temple priest,Bal Kishan,after a petty argument. During trial,he had no advocate and refused the services of the amicus curie. He was awarded a death sentence. The High Court noted in its judgment that not only did Mool Chand not have an advocate,but the question of his mental condition was not taken into account. The court summoned medical experts who concluded that Mool Chand was a schizophrenic,suffered from auditory hallucination and could have assaulted the victim without knowing what he was doing.