In a bizarre incident that came to light on Saturday, a 32-year-old man, who was convicted of attempt to murder while being a minor, had to spend 15 years owing to a gaffe made by police in the chargesheet.
Here's what happened
In 2002, the accused, Jyoti Prakash Sahoo, was sentenced to life imprisonment for a murder attempt. However, due to sheer ignorance on part of the police and the lawyers representing Sahoo, the fact that he was a juvenile at the time of the crime and that he should have been sent to a correctional home was completely overlooked.
It was only after 15 years that a lawyer, who had taken up Sahoo's case on account of a plea for leniency, discovered the blunder. The lawyer immediately brought it to the notice of the judges in Cuttack.
Police made a major blunder
A division bench of Justice I Mahanty and Justice K R Mohapatra discovered that Sahoo was aged 17 years, five months and 18 days when he was arrested on November 28, 2002. Sahoo was accused of firing at a person in Cuttack.
However, while filing Sahoo's chargesheet, police mentioned his age as 20, which till now is unexplainable.
Sahoo and three other accomplices were arrested for the crime and sent to a lock-up. Though all the accused were convicted in 2005 by a trial court in Cuttack, three of them were granted bail.
However, as Sahoo's specified age in the chargesheet was wrong, he was awarded life in jail. Sahoo, who back then was unaware of the Juvenile Justice Act and ignorant of the mistake of the cops, filed an appeal against the sentence in the High Court in 2005.
"I took up the case in 2015 and, while studying the documents, found out that my client had been a minor in 2002 and should have been treated as a juvenile," Sahoo's counsel Rakesh Mallick was quoted as saying by the Times of India.
"I filed a petition praying the court for his immediate release, as under the Juvenile Justice Act the maximum punishment is three years while my client has spent a lot more years in jail," Mallick said while adding that the Juvenile Justice Board was immediately asked to probe the matter.
It is also surprising as to how the previous lawyers had missed out such an important fact.
Meanwhile, the board verified Sahoo's age by referring to his matriculation mark sheet and school transfer certificate. They also questioned the former principal of Sahoo's school. The court has now acquitted Sahoo after 15 years
"On the basis of the report, it's established that my client was a juvenile at the time of the crime. The HC ordered his immediate release," Mallick said.
