India: Acquitted after 30 years in jail, man dies the next day

After three decades in prison over a Rs20 bribery conviction, a former police constable in Gujarat was finally declared innocent by the courts — only to die the very next day.

According to an NDTV report, Babubhai Prajapati, 64, spent nearly 30 years behind bars after being convicted in 1996 for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs20 from a truck driver. His case wound through the legal system for decades, with his appeal languishing for 22 years before the Gujarat High Court acquitted him on Wednesday.

Prajapati’s death on Thursday came just a day after the long-awaited verdict cleared his name, bringing a tragic end to a prolonged legal battle that stretched across most of his adult life.

Justice delayed — and sometimes denied — is not unique to this case. Long legal waits have left hundreds of undertrial prisoners behind bars for years, even without convictions, a chronic issue highlighted in reporting on Indian prisons and courts.

Similar acquittals after decades have occasionally been recorded. For instance, a man in Chhattisgarh was acquitted after 42 years in a murder case, and courts have overturned convictions in other decades-old bribery and criminal cases, underscoring systemic delays in adjudicating appeals.

Internationally, wrongful convictions with delayed exoneration have also drawn scrutiny. Cases such as Teina Pora in New Zealand, who was cleared after spending 20 years in prison for a crime he did not commit, illustrate the global challenge of timely justice and rehabilitation for those later found innocent.

Prajapati’s family and local lawyers have yet to speak publicly about his death or any pending legal or compensation efforts, but his story is already being shared widely as a stark example of the human consequences tied to the slow grind of criminal appeals.