The Allahabad High Court declared that a man named Vishnu Tiwari, who spent 20 years in jail after being convicted on false charges of rape, is innocent.
Tiwari was 23 years old when he was convicted in a false rape case and sentenced to life imprisonment. As per reports, because of not having access to better lawyers, Tiwari could only claim to be innocent time and again.
In the 20 years he spent in jail, Tiwari lost all his family members, Times of India reported.
“The man will be released soon. It is unfortunate that he spent 20 years in jail for a crime he never committed. We are now waiting for the formal release order,” TOI quoted VK Singh, Senior Superintendent, Agra Central Jail.
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Tiwari, a resident of Lalitpur village, was accused of rape by a woman in the year 2000. He was later booked on charges of rape, sexual exploitation, criminal intimidation of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and other sections of SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. He was then held guilty by a trial court and sentenced to life imprisonment.
In 2005, Tiwari decided to appeal against the verdict in the Allahabad High Court. He suffered another blow when his father stopped visiting him in jail and was informed of his death.
In 2020, the Jail authorities approached the state legal service authority to appeal in the high court. In January this year, Tiwari was acquitted by a division bench of justices Kaushal Jayendra Thaker and Gautam Chaudhary.
In its judgment, the court observed that there was a delay of 3 days in the FIR, there were no injuries on private parts of the woman and there was a “motive on the part of the complainant” related to a land dispute.