27 Years In Prison, And Counting: Former Soldier On Death Row Since 1991 Without Parole

Lance Naik Devendranath Rai was 33 years old when he was convicted and sentenced to death for murdering two colleagues while posted in Mathura in 1991.

Today, as a 60-year-old, he is still lodged in Naini Jail in Allahabad.

In the last 27 years, he did not get a single day’s parole to visit his family. Rai’s wife, through senior advocate Shekhar Naphade, narrated the Armyman’s pitiable story on Friday before a bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, which sought responses from the Centre and the Uttar Pradesh government as well as Naini Jail authorities.

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