After SC's rap, UP govt pays Rs 5 lakh compensation for delayed release of accused from jail

New Delhi: After the rap by the Supreme Court, the Uttar Pradesh government on Friday told the apex court that it paid a compensation of Rs five lakh to a man as his release from prison was delayed for a month despite the bail.

The court had granted bail to a Muslim man on April 29, subsequently, on May 27, he was ordered to be released from prison in Ghaziabad by the trial court.

As the matter came up on Friday before a bench of Justices K V Viswanathan and N Kotiswar Singh, the government’s counsel submitted that the state had complied with the previous direction and paid the compensation to the petitioner. 

A counsel representing the petitioner also confirmed having received the compensation.

The man, named Aftab was booked under the provisions of the state’s anti-conversion law. Though he was granted bail by the top court on April 29, he was released from Ghaziabad district jail only on June 24 after a delay of 28 days.

On June 25, the court severely criticised the jail authorities over the delay. It ordered the state government to pay a Rs five lakh compensation.

The court had observed that liberty was a “very valuable and precious” right guaranteed under the Constitution. The apex court said the petitioner had lost his liberty for at least 28 days due to a “trivial non-issue”.

The bench had also ordered an enquiry into the matter by the principal district and sessions judge, Ghaziabad.

The bench noted that the delay in his release was due to a subsection of a provision of the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021, that was not mentioned in the bail order.

On April 29, the apex court had granted bail to Aftab, who voluntarily converted to Hinduism and married a Hindu girl according to Hindu rites. The girl’s aunt had lodged a missing person complaint. The man was booked under Section 366 (kidnapping, abducting or inducing a woman to compel her marriage, etc) of the erstwhile IPC and Sections 3 and 5 (Prohibition of conversion from one religion to another religion by misrepresentation, force, fraud, undue influence, coercion, allurement) of the 2021 Act.