Lucknow, Aug 15 (IANS): Seventy-three prisoners will walk free on Independence Day on Thursday from various jails in Uttar Pradesh.
The prisoners are those who have served their sentences but continued to remain in jail for not paying their fine amount.
Principal Secretary (Home) Avanish Kumar Awasthi said that necessary directives have been sent to the concerned jails for their release.
The 73 prisoners are presently lodged in jails in Meerut, Kanpur, Moradabad, Aligarh, Bareilly, Hamirpur, Chitrakoot, Sultanpur, Mirzapur, Varanasi, Mathura, Ayodhya, Agra, Orai, Unnao, Hardoi, Fatehgarh, Lucknow, Kannauj, Sitapur, Gonda, Sonebhadra, Jhansi, Ghaziabad and Rae Bareli.
The state government, as a routine, releases such prisoners on occasions like Independence Day, Gandhi Jayanti and Republic Day.