Prisoner until proven innocent: A five-decade ordeal

Lakhan Pasi was sleeping inside his thatched hut in Gourey village when his wife Pyari Devi woke him up.

- Kenneth John

PRAYAGRAJ: It was around 4 pm on August 5, 1977. Pyari told him that 15-16 people in the neighborhood were fighting near the village well with sticks and lathis. "When I went, I saw Deshraj had attacked Prabhu, who was bleeding. They had an old enmity. Police came and took Prabhu to the hospital, where doctors declared him dead," said Lakhan.

Night was falling so Lakhan came home and narrated the gory story to his family of eight people. He then went to sleep, waking up the next morning to slip back into his mundane routine of watering his field.

According to Lakhan, Deshraj (single name) was angry with Prabhu (single name), his neighbor, as the latter's cattle would stray into his farm and destroy crops.

A day before the murder, on August 4, 1977, there was a scuffle between the two on the same issue. Deshraj's mother, who tried to intervene, suffered a fracture in her hand. This infuriated Deshraj and his family leading to Prabhu's murder the next day.

The next night, police barged into Lakhan's humble household, and frogmarched the 56-year-old man to the police station along with three other accused including Deshraj, Kaleshwar and Kallu.

"Prabhu's brother, Rajaram (single name), had included my name also in the first information report and the police arrested me along with three others," Lakhan said.

Earlier that evening, the UP Police had lodged an FIR at the Sarai Aqil Police Station under Sections 323 and 308 of the Indian Penal Code for voluntarily causing hurt and attempting to commit culpable homicide not amounting to murder against Deshraj, his brother and brother-in-law, Kaleshwar and Kallu, respectively, and Lakhan, on a complaint by Rajaram.