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 Publish 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 Court docket of Enchantment dominated that she had been wrongly imprisoned over 12 years in the past after being accused of stealing GBP 75,000 from her Publish 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 way of and mentioned Jenkins might have apologised “ages in the past”.
Her response adopted a written witness assertion submitted to the Publish Workplace Inquiry by Jenkins, wherein he mentioned: “I didn’t know that Mrs Misra was pregnant on the time of her conviction and solely discovered 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 circumstances is presently being investigated by police for potential perjury or mendacity to a court docket. In considered one of his earlier witness statements to the inquiry, he denied any wrongdoing.
Earlier, Ms Misra had rejected an identical apology from former Publish Workplace Managing Director David Smith for a congratulatory electronic mail he despatched after Misra’s conviction.
“It was meant to be a congratulatory electronic mail to the staff, realizing that they’d labored laborious on the case,” Smith mentioned in his written proof to the inquiry.
“Nonetheless, realizing what I do now, it’s evident that my electronic 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 assume that it was ‘sensible information’ for a pregnant girl to go to jail and I’m massively apologetic that my electronic mail could be learn as such,” he mentioned.
“Nonetheless, seeing this electronic 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 never 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 all of a sudden realised that after 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 beginning 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 repeatedly, it is simply annoying. It makes me an increasing number of offended, to be trustworthy,” Mr Misra added.
The UK authorities, which formally owns Publish Workplace Ltd, has paid out tens of millions in compensation to lots of of sub-postmasters – lots of them of Indian heritage – impacted by the defective Horizon software program.
Earlier this 12 months, 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 Publish Workplace (Horizon System) Offences Invoice, a blanket exoneration to quash convictions led to 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 publish workplaces for use for quite a lot of duties, together with accounting and stocktaking. But it surely appeared to have important bugs, which might trigger the system to misreport, generally involving giant 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.)
