Wrongfully jailed,he’s yet to clear name

When he did manage to procure bail,Prempal busied himself in getting his son and daughter married. He secured loans,sold his ancestral land and requested relatives to provide household necessities to his daughter on the promise that he would pay them once his name was cleared.

The first breather he got was in 2004,when Justice (retired) S N Dhingra,then a sessions judge,acquitted him in the rape case and noted that Prempal,being a poor person,had failed to move the wheels of justice in his favour. Stating that “criminal characters” in the police had framed him and his sons in false cases,the judge said the people responsible for converting him into a “living corpse” should get “exemplary punishment”. He also recommended that Prempal be adequately compensated.

Later,in 2005,the Sangam Vihar police arrested Prempal again on charges of firing at policemen. However,after Justice Dhingra intervened,the police had no option but to release on bail. Two years passed before another attempt-to-murder case was slapped on him in 2007.

Prempal,meanwhile,sent a legal notice to the Delhi Police Commissioner through advocate Wills Mathews,seeking compensation. When it failed to yield results,he moved the High Court in 2006.

Observing that Prempal’s case was one that “shocks judicial conscience”,Justice S Muralidhar noted: “The most precious years of his life were spent in trying to defend himself against a number of false cases. Despite so many acquittals,the Delhi Police continues to dub him as a ‘hardened’ criminal,an appellation that is unfair and unjustified.”

Besides paying him a compensation of Rs 5.32 lakh with an interest of 6 per cent since 2002,the court had asked then Police Commissioner Y S Dadwal to write an apology to Prempal and each of his family members.

In April 2010,Prempal and six other family members received letters from Dadwal,expressing “deep regret for their hardships and sufferings” due to the false cases foisted on them. He was also sent a cheque of Rs 8.13 lakh.

Two cases,however,continue to haunt Prempal. He recently moved the High Court,filing a contempt-of-court petition. This time,the petition was against incumbent Police Commissioner B K Gupta. The police,however,stated that a recommendation to clear him of the charges has already been placed before the Delhi government.

Last week,Justice Sistani disposed of the contempt petition,giving Prempal the liberty to seek quashing of the FIRs.

Prempal,however,is dissatisfied. “Whatever money I got in damages was used to cover debts and legal bills. Now I am being asked to approach the court again for getting the FIRs quashed. Why should I do it when two court orders have already directed the police to withdraw the cases? I don’t know how I am going to come up with the money to fight one more battle. The support of my family has brought me so far,but I don’t know if I have the courage to face yet another legal bout,” he said.