Set Free, Convicts Play Hard to Get

Sandwiched between the judiciary and the legislature are the prisoners, most of whom are facing life sentences, and their family members. ‘‘I thought that my ordeal was over on January 26 but I was put behind bars again,’’ said Ram Asrey, a resident of Bachwakheda, Unnao district, who has already served 20 years on a murder charge.

Along with him in the Model Jail at Lucknow are Shah Mohammed of Balrampur, who has spent 16 years in jail, and Irshad, who has faced 10 years of imprisonment, and are now behind bars for a second time.

According to sources, they are merely the unlucky ones. Unconfirmed reports said that the controversial GO was targeted at getting some specific people out of jail. At that time, 15 of the 21 accused in a carnage that killed 11 people on February 1, 1989, in Sankhini village, Bulandshahr, were serving life terms; all of them were released under the GO and none of them have been subsequently re-arrested.

Interestingly, following the High Court order of their re-arrest, all 15 approached the Supreme Court seeking an overturn of the HC order. On January 14 this year, the Court ruled that their plea would be considered only after they gave themselves up. This, however, has not happened.