Acquitted, yet in Bareilly jail: Mainpuri man waits for freedom after 24 years; justice undone by procedure

LUCKNOW: Freedom, in name. Prison, in reality. Nearly 24 years after being sent to jail for a dacoity and more than a month after being acquitted by Allahabad high court, 45-year-old Azad Khan is still behind bars in UP. No case pending. No conviction standing. No legal ground to hold him. Only a missing piece of paper.Azad, a resident of Vyoti Katra village in Mainpuri district — about 270km southwest of Lucknow — remains lodged in Bareilly central jail in western UP because the certified copy of his acquittal order has not reached authorities who must process his release.Police said they have nothing to act on. "We have not received any court order in Azad Khan's acquittal case," Mainpuri circle officer Santosh Singh said. The Bareilly jail superintendent didn't respond to TOI's attempts for his response.Azad was 21 when he was arrested in Oct 2000 and later convicted under IPC Sections 395 (dacoity) and 397 (robbery or dacoity with an attempt to cause death or grievous hurt) for a late-night dacoity. He was sent to prison. He has now spent nearly half his life incarcerated. The case eventually collapsed. In a judgment dated Dec 19, 2025, Allahabad high court set aside the conviction, ruling prosecution failed to produce a single eyewitness or any incriminating evidence linking Azad to the crime.The court also addressed a troubling detail: Azad had filed seven confession applications during trial. Those confessions, the court said, were not admissions of guilt but acts of fear. Azad believed he would be killed by the informant, allegedly with police collusion, if he were released. The confessions reflected desperation, not culpability. Despite that clear finding, Azad stayed in jail.On Tuesday, his 22-year-old nephew Sohail Khan travelled from Mainpuri to Prayagraj, seeking answers. With little money, he hitchhiked with members of Bharatiya Kisan Union, who backed his plea.At the high court, Sohail met advocate Yanendra Pandey, the court-appointed lawyer handling Azad's case since 2023. Pandey secured the certified copy of the acquittal order — an essential document without which release cannot proceed."I am not aware why Azad Khan is still languishing in jail. More than a month has passed since the acquittal and he should have been out living as a free man," Pandey said. "The family contacted me only recently. Today, with Sohail's help, we got the certified copy."Pandey said the document will now be taken to the district court in Mainpuri, which must issue formal release directions. A relative must file a personal bond of Rs 20,000. Only then will instructions be sent to Bareilly jail.For the family, the wait has been relentless. "My brother served a jail term for a crime he was never part of," said elder brother Mastan Khan, a daily-wage worker. "When I met him around Diwali in 2024, he looked fragile but hopeful. We are poor. We could not hire a private lawyer. The court appointed Pandey. Even after acquittal, my brother is still waiting for freedom."Azad's case lays bare a deeper failure: justice undone by procedure. A man declared innocent by a court remains locked up — not because of law, but because files moved slowly, and papers did not. For now, hope rests in a certified copy carried by a nephew who grew up while his uncle lost his life to prison walls.