Ludhiana: 41-year-old Surendra Pradhan of Orisha, who was convicted in a murder case in Ferozepur, had to spend four extra years in the Ludhiana Central Jail as he was unable to pay Rs 5,000 fine to get himself released from there. In 2016, remission was granted to him on the condition that he would have to pay a fine of Rs 5,000. However, since Pradhan was not in touch with his family, he could not pay the fine. However, on the eve of Diwali, city-based NGO Help paid his fine and got him released from the jail.
Pradhan shared that he had thought that he would die inside the jail as two decades of his life had been spent there. He was 21 year old when he was lodged in the jail in a murder case. But now, after getting released he was fell short of words to express his joy.
President of Help NGO advocate Gaganpreet Singh said that the jail authorities had told him about the case of Pradhan. He was from Odisha and had come to Ludhiana in 1999 to earn a living as he belonged to an extremely poor family. In two decades, nobody came to meet him in the jail. In 2016, the court granted him sentence remission on the condition of paying a fine of Rs 5,000. As he was unable to pay the fine, he had to spend four more years in the jail.
“After I came to know about the matter, I decided to help him. On the eve of Diwali, we paid his fine and got him released from the jail. We gave him new clothes and some money. When we gave him some currency notes of Rs 500, Pradhan thought these were fake notes. He had no idea about demonetization. Surendra was barefooted and when we asked him to wait for a few minutes so we could buy him footwear, he did not agree. He was so excited to go back to his hometown to meet his family that he started walking out to reach the railway station,” added Gaganpreet.
“Before leaving, Pradhan said just one thing to us that God could not come to help him, so He sent us. His words touched me,” he added.