The Supreme Court on Wednesday slammed the Uttar Pradesh jail authorities for delaying the release of a man whom it granted bail on April 29 in a case under the state’s anti-conversion law, and directed the state government to pay him ₹5 lakh as interim compensation.
The apex court asked the Ghaziabad district and sessions judge to conduct an inquiry into the district jail authorities’ failure to release Aftab, the accused in an alleged conversion racket.
A bench of Justice K.V. Viswanathan and Justice N. Kotiswar Singh indicated that Aftab may be awarded further compensation, subject to the inquiry report to be submitted by the district judge, and the amount of compensation in the present case may be recovered from the erring jail officials.
The bench passed the direction after the Uttar Pradesh government, represented by its additional advocate-general Garima Prashad, informed the court that Aftab had been formally released on Tuesday following the apex court taking a serious view of the non-compliance of its earlier order.