Indian-Origin Girl Wrongly Jailed In UK Throughout Being pregnant Rejects Apology

Seema Misra mentioned the apology of ex-Fujitsu engineer Gareth Jenkins was “too little, too late”. (File)

London:

An Indian-origin former supervisor of a Put up Workplace in England wrongly jailed whereas pregnant has rejected the apology of an engineer whose proof helped convict her over defective accounting software program.

Seema Misra, now 47, had her conviction quashed in April 2021 because the Courtroom of Attraction dominated that she had been wrongly imprisoned over 12 years in the past after being accused of stealing GBP 75,000 from her Put up Workplace department in Surrey the place she was the sub-postmistress.

On the ongoing public inquiry into the scandal, she advised the BBC that the apology of ex-Fujitsu engineer Gareth Jenkins was “too little, too late”.

“No person can perceive it,” she mentioned of the ordeal she went by means of and mentioned Jenkins might have apologised “ages in the past”.

Her response adopted a written witness assertion submitted to the Put up Workplace Inquiry by Jenkins, during which he mentioned: “I didn’t know that Mrs Misra was pregnant on the time of her conviction and solely realized of this a few years later.”

“This makes what has occurred much more tragic. I can solely apologise, once more, to Mrs Misra and her household for what occurred to her.” The previous engineer who appeared as an skilled witness in 15 sub-postmaster instances is at present being investigated by police for potential perjury or mendacity to a court docket. In one among his earlier witness statements to the inquiry, he denied any wrongdoing.

Earlier, Ms Misra had rejected the same apology from former Put up Workplace Managing Director David Smith for a congratulatory e mail he despatched after Misra’s conviction.

“It was supposed to be a congratulatory e mail to the group, understanding that that they had labored onerous on the case,” Smith mentioned in his written proof to the inquiry.

“Nonetheless, understanding what I do now, it’s evident that my e mail would have prompted Seema Misra and her household substantial misery to learn and I want to apologise for that… Even when this had been an accurate conviction, I’d completely by no means suppose that it was ‘sensible information’ for a pregnant lady to go to jail and I’m massively apologetic that my e mail will be learn as such,” he mentioned.

“Nonetheless, seeing this e mail within the mild of what I do know now, I perceive the anger and the upset that it’s going to have prompted and sincerely apologise for that,” he added.

“I used to be eight weeks pregnant – they should apologise to my youngest son. It was horrible. I have not accepted the apologies,” Mr Misra mentioned on the time in April.

“We had my conviction overturned, no one got here at the moment to apologise. And now they only immediately realised that once they have to look in a public inquiry, they must apologise,” she mentioned.

Mr Misra was despatched to Bronzefield jail in south-east England and served four-and-a-half months, later giving start to her second son carrying an digital tag. Smith advised the inquiry that Mr Misra had been used as a “take a look at case” and the success of the case led to extra confidence within the defective Horizon IT accounting system.

“How can they do a take a look at on a human being? I am a dwelling creature. I heard that my case has been used as a take a look at case earlier than. However listening to it many times, it is simply annoying. It makes me an increasing number of indignant, to be trustworthy,” Mr Misra added.

The UK authorities, which formally owns Put up Workplace Ltd, has paid out thousands and thousands in compensation to a whole bunch of sub-postmasters – a lot of them of Indian heritage – impacted by the defective Horizon software program.

Earlier this yr, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pledged motion within the historic scandal that wrongly accused sub-postmasters of fraud.

Final month, a brand new legislation tabled in Parliament launched the Put up Workplace (Horizon System) Offences Invoice, a blanket exoneration to quash convictions caused by inaccurate Horizon proof. A public inquiry within the case, underway in a phased method, is anticipated to conclude in July.

The controversial Horizon system, developed by the Japanese firm Fujitsu, was first rolled out in 1999 to some put up workplaces for use for a wide range of duties, together with accounting and stocktaking. Nevertheless it appeared to have important bugs, which might trigger the system to misreport, generally involving massive sums as was the case within the case of those sub-postmasters.

(Aside from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV workers and is revealed from a syndicated feed.)