Overview

• On August 4, 2025, 71-year-old Kanhaiya Lal submitted a written confession in the Chief Judicial Magistrate’s court in Jhansi to theft, forging receipts, and embezzlement from a cooperative society in 1976.
• The court convicted him under multiple Indian Penal Code sections including housebreaking, theft, breach of trust, forgery and conspiracy, credited his approximately one year in custody toward his sentence and fined him ₹2,300.
• The minor cooperative society case had languished for 49 years, marked by repeated adjournments, a 2021 non-bailable warrant and formal charges framed in December 2023.
• Two of Lal’s co-accused, Lakshmi Prasad and Raghunath, died during the long trial while extensive bureaucratic delays and file transfers kept the proceedings stalled.
• Legal experts say the case highlights the urgent need for more lower courts, better infrastructure and time-bound adjudication to address India’s millions of pending cases.