The Allahabad High Court has expressed serious concern over the detention of a prisoner in Hardoi jail even after the sentence awarded to him ended 11 months ago.
A Lucknow bench of Justice Shamim Ahmad has summoned the jail superintendent of Hardoi on Friday to explain why the prisoner has been illegally detained in jail.
Besides, the bench also summoned the director general of prisons to apprise it about how many prisoners have been detained in jails across Uttar Pradesh who have already served out the awarded punishment.
The bench further sought affidavits of the two officials.
The court passed the order on an appeal filed by prisoner Arvind alias Naga.
His lawyer Pragati Singh argued that Naga was convicted on November 28, 2022 under IPC section 323 (Voluntarily Causing Hurt) and was punished with a maximum sentence of five years.
Singh said that Naga has been in jail since December 20, 2017 and as such he has already served out the awarded sentence. But despite this, he has still been detained in jail for over 11 months.
“The state government must be directed to pay compensation to the appellant for illegal detention period,” demanded Singh.
When asked by the bench, additional government advocate Ashok Kumar Singh admitted that the matter was serious.
Naga was booked by Shahabad police in Hardoi and remained in jail ever since his arrest and even during trial, Singh told the bench.
