According to the chargesheet, Mishra was arrested at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) railway station on the evening of January 23, 2007 after people complained of a theft. The police constables who were on duty said they saw Mishra and another man — Abdul Shaikh (25) — running and they chased them. Shaikh allegedly attacked constable Sachin Sansurkar with a chopper and injured him on his fingers.

While Shaikh managed to escape but Mishra was arrested by the police. He was booked under section 333 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for “voluntarily causing grievous hurt to deter public servant from his duty”.

Since there were two accused in the case Mishra was booked for helping Shaikh.

Subsequently, Mishra was sent to Arthur Road jail. As he was too poor to afford a lawyer, he was represented by an advocate from the state government’s Legal Aid Service. He did not have relatives in the city who could help him to file for a bail while his matter was pending in court. He therefore continued to languish in the prison until his case was sent up for trial.

Mishra’s case was tried in a sessions court recently and the prosecution examined five witnesses, including Sansurkar who was the complainant.