Bihar

KRISHNA PRASAD, 50, Beur Jail
Charge: Forging bail applications
Maximum punishment: Seven years
Time spent as undertrial prisoner: Eight years

It is a routine he has grown inured to. Every working day, Krishna Murari Prasad is taken to the Patna District and Sessions Court. He travels in a police van, chained to other prisoners. There are normally about 40 of them. Since the lock-up room is usually packed, they stay all day in the stuffy, smelly van, waiting to be summoned by the judge. The summons rarely come. Evening comes earlier - and Prasad returns to his cell.

Ironically, the very court was once Prasad's workplace. In 1986, he was a clerk there when he was arrested for forging court orders to facilitate bail. In 1989, Prasad was released on bail, in the teeth of opposition from the CBI.