Patna, Aug. 22: The wait for justice still continues for Manoj Kumar Singh, a juvenile delinquent languishing in the Munger divisional jail for around one-and-a-half decades.

Singh, who was awarded life term in a murder case in 1986 by a Munger court, is at his wit’s end as to who to blame for his predicament.

According to the provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act, Singh, a resident of Logay village under Tarapur police station in Munger district, should have been released after serving three years in jail. However, his case was not taken up at the meeting of the juvenile justice board constituted by the state government.

Though Singh later represented his case through the jail authorities, as he was a juvenile at the time of committing the crime on July 9, 1981, his wait for release seems unending. Singh has already spent 14 years and six months in jail.

“Even in normal case, he would have been released from jail after serving 14 years’ sentence,” said Om Prakash Poddar, a practising lawyer of Munger civil court. Poddar said Singh’s 14-year jail term ended on February 20 this year.

Singh’s case is not an isolated one. Statistics provided by the prisons department under the Right to Information Act 2005 revealed that 48 juvenile delinquents were languishing in five central jails of the state even after completing their jail terms.

The official data released by Jay Prakash Das, public information officer posted at the prison directorate in Patna on April 4 this year disclosed that nine juvenile delinquents were languishing at Beur Central Jail in Patna, three in Bhagalpur Central Jail, 34 in special central jail at Bhagalpur and one each in Katihar and Begusarai district jails.

While Raj Nath Mahto is lodged in Beur Central Jail in Patna since October 29, 1998, Shiv Narayan Singh is serving sentence since June 30, 2001. Ajay Kumar Singh is lodged in Beur jail since August 8, 2001, the official statistics revealed.

Similarly in Bhagalpur Central Jail, Vividha Mahto has been languishing since May 24, 2003 and Sanjay Kumar Yadav since September 15, 2004.

“Hundreds of juvenile delinquents are languishing in 57 jails of the state even after completing jail terms owing to the callous attitude of the prisons department,” Poddar said.

Sources in the prisons department said three juvenile delinquents were released on the recommendation of the JJ Board, which held its first meeting under the chairmanship of then principal secretary, home department, Afzal Amanullah, on July 16, 2008.

Though the cases of six delinquents were taken up at the meeting, only three of them were found fit for release. The second meeting was held on September 11, 2008, which put its seal on the release of three delinquents — Siddharth, Arinit Das (both lodged in Beur Central Jail) and Jitendra Singh (Katihar jail).

At the third meeting of the board headed by principal secretary, home department, Amir Subhani on October 15, 2009, a list of 13 juvenile delinquents was presented for consideration. The meeting decided to take up the cases only after verification of birth certificates of beneficiaries.

The fourth meeting of the board was held on July 28, 2010, in which 21 cases were taken up for consideration. Board members were told at the meeting that three delinquents — Bipul Kumar Singh, Ram Chandra Manjhi and Rajendra Bind — have already been freed on the recommendation of the Bihar Rajya Dandadesh Parihar Parshad.

“Only three prisoners have been released on the recommendation of the JJ Board,” Poddar said, adding that no meeting of the board has been convened in 2011.