‘Wrongly convicted’ man acquitted by HC after over 25 years in jail

LUCKNOW The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court acquitted one Jaimangal Yadav of Gonda, who was wrongly convicted in a murder case and spent over 25 years in prison. The man, released in 2021 after the state government granted him remission, has now been cleared of all charges in the 1996 murder case.

The court emphasized that “manifest illegality cannot sustain conviction,” citing serious flaws in the trial court’s reliance on weak and inconsistent evidence. The court also noted that the prosecution’s story was improbable and insufficient to warrant a conviction.

The judgement of acquittal was passed by a division bench comprising justice Sangeeta Chandra and justice Mohd Faiz Alam Khan on January 8, allowing an appeal filed by Yadav. In the appeal, he had challenged the trial court’s judgement and order of conviction passed in 2002.

As per prosecution, the case originated from the murder of one Bhagwati Prasad Tiwari, a clerk at a coal depot in Gonda, owned by the informant Bhagwan Prasad Mishra. On February 29, 1996, Tiwari was found dead at the depot, having suffered multiple head injuries.

The informant alleged that Yadav, employed as a watchman at the depot, killed Tiwari over accusations of theft and unpaid wages. Yadav was reportedly apprehended

from a nearby field by Mishra and his associates, who claimed he confessed to the crime on the spot. The police later arrested Yadav.

Setting aside the judgement of conviction passed by the trial court, the high court directed the trial court to provide the acquitted man with a copy of the judgment.