Freed after 34 yrs in jail, he returns to find no one can trace his home

Their prisoner for over three decades, Prabhunath, is accompanying the team after being recently released by a court in Rajasthan’s Sriganganagar district. He was arrested in the early 70s on charges of illegally trying to cross over to Pakistan. Prabhunath’s crime, if proved, wouldn’t have got him more than two years. But once behind bars, the years dragged as an undertrial. He too lost his mental moorings.

In the last three decades, while Prabhunath’s life had shrivelled inside the four walls of his cell, the world outside, and particularly in his district, changed. Jail records show he is from a village in Eastern UP’s Basti district. Today, Basti has split into three — Basti, Siddharth Nagar and Saint Kabir Nagar. The police station mentioned in his address does not exist either.

Superintendent of Jaipur’s Central Jail V K Mathur said Prabhunath was brought here from the Karnapur Jail on January 7, 1976. He had shown signs of mental imbalance and was to be treated at the nearby Rajkiya Mansika Chikitsalaya. Mathur said: “He was beginning to lose his mind and was referred here. He spent the larger part of the month at the hospital.”

Prabhunath’s arrest can be traced back to 1974, when he was picked up from Sriganganagar on the border of India and Pakistan.

The charges are based on Section 3 of the Passport Act, 1967, which says “No person shall depart from, or attempt to depart from, India unless he holds in this behalf a valid passport or travel document.” Section 12 deals with the penalties. “Failure to produce for inspection his passport or travel document (whether issued under this Act or not) when called upon to do so by the prescribed authority... shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years or with fine which may extend to five thousands rupees or with both.”

Though he is finally out of jail, Prabhunath’s trial is far from over. The Rajasthan team is finding it difficult to trace his village. Assistant Sub-Inspector Chandan Singh told The Indian Express from Basti: “Prabhunath does not talk about his village at all. We have been told by the police here that there is no police station called Etala.”

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