CUTTUCK: On Saturday , when Jyoti Prakash Sahoo walked out of the Choudwar circle jail in Cuttack , he had spent 15 years behind bars. All because police had written his age wrong in the chargesheet.Sahoo was sentenced to life in jail for a murder attempt in 2002. But police and the lawyers representing him glossed over the fact that he was a juvenile at the time of the crime, and should have been sent to a correctional home.On Friday, the Orissa high court came to his rescue when his lawyer, the third in the last 15 years, found out that Sahoo, now 32, was a juvenile when the crime was committed and brought it to the judges' notice, and ordered his release. A division bench of Justice I Mahanty and Justice K R Mohapatra discovered that Sahoo was aged 17 years five months and 18 days when arrested on November 28, 2002, for firing at a person in Cuttack. In the chargesheet, police had inexplicably mentioned his age as 20.Sahoo was one of the four suspects arrested for the crime and sent to a lock-up.They were all convicted in 2005 by a trial court in Cuttack. Subsequently, three were granted bail but not Sahoo, the prime accused.Unaware of the Juvenile Justice Act, Sahoo filed an appeal against the sentence in the Orissa high court in 2005 but never pleaded on the grounds of police's mistake.His counsel Rakesh Mallick said, "I took up the case in 2015 and, while studying the documents, found out that my client had been a minor in 2002 and should have been treated as a juvenile. I filed a petition praying the co urt for his immediate release, as under the Juvenile Justice Act the maximum punishment is three years while my client has spent a lot more years in jail."It's unclear why Sahoo's first two lawyers did not find this out. The court took note of Mallick's petition and ordered the Juvenile Justice Board to inquire into the matter. The board verified the matriculation marksheet and school transfer certificate, and also questioned the former principal of Sahoo's school, and submitted its report in the court.Mallick added, "On the basis of the report, it's established that my client was a juvenile at the time of the crime. The HC... ordered his immediate release."

Stay updated with all the Latest Cuttack headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.