Patna, Oct. 7: This is one Dussehra Manoj Kumar Singh and his family would never forget.

Held guilty at the age of 20, Manoj, a juvenile delinquent lodged in the Munger divisional jail was released on October 1, 2011, when he had turned into an adult.

Manoj was freed ahead of the Dussehra after spending about 14 years and eight months in prison.

For Manoj and his family, October 1 assumes special significance. “The day has a special importance in my life. It is like a rebirth for me,” said Manoj soon after coming out of the four walls of the prison.

Manoj was greeted with flowers at the jail gate. His relatives applied gulal on his face to celebrate the occasion. His eyes got wet with the response he received from his family members, friends and acquaintances. “I am breathing freely after almost one-and-a-half decade,” he said.

Manoj, a resident of Logay village under Tarapur police station in Naxalite-affected Munger district, was convicted and awarded life-term by an additional district and sessions court on February 4, 1996 in a murder case. Since then he has been languishing in the Munger jail.

Manoj was a juvenile (16 years, four months and 28 days old) at the time of the murder, which took place on July 9, 1991. “Had my case been taken up at the meeting of the Juvenile Justice Board properly, I would have been released much earlier,” he told The Telegraph.

The Telegraph had published a report on August 23, 2011 on several juvenile delinquents, who were languishing in different jails of the state even after completion of their terms.

A Munger-based advocate, Om Prakash Poddar, said Manoj should have been released from jail after serving three years according to the prescribed rules for juvenile delinquents. “But he had to spend almost one and a half decade in prison because of the callous attitude of jail authorities,” he said.

Manoj is not an isolated case of over stay of juvenile delinquents in Bihar prisons. Statistics provided by the prison department under Right to Information Act, 2005, revealed that total 48 juvenile delinquents were languishing in five central jails of the state even after completing their terms.

“One can guess the condition of delinquents lodged in the 57 jails of the state,” Poddar, who has been fighting for the cause of the prisoners, said.

The data released by Jay Prakash Das, the public information officer posted at the prison directorate in Patna on April 4, 2011, disclosed that nine juvenile delinquents were languishing in the central jail at Beur in Patna, three in Bhagalpur central jail, 34 in special central jail in Bhagalpur and one each in Katihar and Begusarai district jails respectively.

While Raj Nath Mahto, Ajay Kumar Singh and Shiv Narain Singh are lodged in the Beur Jail since October 29, 1998, August 8, 2001 and June 30, 2001 respectively, Vividha Mahto and Sanjay Kumar Yadav are languishing in Bhagalpur Central Jail since May 24, 2003 and September 15, 2004 respectively.

“Hundreds of juvenile delinquents are languishing in 57 jails of the state even after completing the jail term because of the callous attitude of the authorities,” Poddar said.

Sources said three juvenile delinquents were released on the recommendation of the Juvenile Justice 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 to be 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) and Jitendra Singh (Katihar Jail).

Records of the prison department show that Ram Chandra Manjhi was released from the Beur jail after spending 15 years (21 years with remission) while Rajendra Bind was freed from Gaya Central Jail after spending 16 years (22 years with remission). Bipul was let off from the special central jail in Bhagalpur after spending 17 years (24 years with remission).