Life, for Jagjivan Ram Yadav begins at 70.
He was accused of a murder back in 1968 and spent 38 years without trial shuttling between the walls of a prison and a mental asylum and having no idea what the future would hold for his wife and two-year-old son.
He walked out of Faizabad jail three days ago after the Supreme Court in February directed the Lucknow Bench of Allahabad High Court to release him on bail.
Though yet to recover from the long stint away from society and at sea at the change that has taken place in all these years, Jagjivan is ready to let bygones be bygones and has not lost faith in the judiciary.
"The apex court's directive to release me on bail has given me a fresh lease of life," the gaunt old man said.
He is for the time being living in a little hamlet called Moti-ka-Purwa in Khadbhadiya village in the district along with his wife Patto who had long given him up for dead and donned the white garments of widows until informed otherwise about a year ago.
For the moment, Jagjivan has no plans of visiting his ancestral village of Mithaura, perhaps because the memories it evokes are not very comforting. It was there that he was arrested for the murder of his sister-in-law Gulabo Devi after a case was registered against him on January 29, 1968.
{{/usCountry}}For the moment, Jagjivan has no plans of visiting his ancestral village of Mithaura, perhaps because the memories it evokes are not very comforting. It was there that he was arrested for the murder of his sister-in-law Gulabo Devi after a case was registered against him on January 29, 1968.
{{/usCountry}}"All I want is peace," he said and added that he had pleaded innocence a but the pleas went unheeded.