Lifer freed by Allahabad HC on fake Juvenile Justice Board order; probe on
LUCKNOW: After a rape and murder convict serving a life term was released from the Lucknow model jail on a ‘fake’ order, the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court on Wednesday constituted an in-house inquiry.
The ‘order’ was purportedly issued by the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) declaring a rape and murder convict as a minor on February 20, 2018, on the basis of which the convict was freed from the jail.
While hearing an appeal filed by the rape and murder convicts, the High Court Bench comprising Justice RR Awasthi and Justice Mahendra Dayal directed the Lucknow District Judge to probe how a ‘fake’ order was released in the name of JJB. The court also directed the Lucknow SSP to depute a Circle Officer (CO) to conduct the probe into the role played by the jail authorities in releasing the convict.Both the District Judge and SSP Lucknow were given two weeks to prepare the report and appear in court on July 30.
In fact, the trial court had earlier sentenced the accused in question with life sentence while the other one had been awarded death penalty in a case of rape and murder.The convicts had approached HC against the trail court order. While hearing the appeal of the convicts, the HC came across the matter, it took cognizance of it and immediately sought explanation from the JJB and jail authorities.
Following the latest development, the appeal is pending.Interestingly, JJB principal judge Achal Pratap Singh denied having issued any such order. Singh claimed that the alleged release order was fake for which he had also lodged an FIR on June 12, 2018.