In Lucknow, People Are Spending Night In Lockups To Neutralise 'Jail Yog' In Kundali

It¡¯s not just undertrials who spend a night in lockups. In Lucknow, there many who do it on their own volition ¡ª to neutralise ¡®jail yog¡¯ in their ¡®kundali¡¯. The district's administration here plays a willing facilitator.

Meet 38-year-old businessman from Gomtinagar, Ramesh Singh, who served a 24-hour ¡®imprisonment¡¯ in May this year.

¡°After going through my ¡®kundali¡¯(horoscope), our family astrologer revealed that I have a ¡®jail yog¡¯, which would land me in trouble in future. Everyone in the family got scared since then. The astrologer then suggested us that if I spend some time in jail without any fault, the threat would end,¡± he said.

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Singh moved an application before the district administration in the last week of April along with a copy of his ¡®kundali¡¯.

After his papers were vetted, Singh was allowed to spend 24 hours in the lock-up of a local police station. As per the advice of his astrologer, he followed all rules framed for under-trials ¡ª even having food that was served to them.

¡°I also prayed to God to pardon my sin and help me stay on the right path so that I never commit any crime,¡± he said. Lucknow DM Kaushal Raj Sharma said that his office receives around two dozen such requests every year. ¡°Applicants urge us to allow them to spend time in ¡®jail¡¯ for 24-48 hours.¡± Since only a court can pronounce a ¡®jail sentence¡¯, those making such requests are allowed to spend time in lock-up.

¡®Permission given after verification of kundali¡¯

"There is no legal provision that allows us to lodge a person without any criminal record in lock-up, but permit persons with such requests on religious grounds. To ensure that the purpose of going to ¡®jail¡¯ (read lock-up) is purely religious, the permission is given after thorough verification in which crucial documents ¡ª including the ¡®kundali¡¯ of the applicant ¡ª are checked,¡± said a district administration official.

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Like Ramesh, Ankit Chaturvedi also went for a ¡®jail yatra¡¯ in January. Sharing his experience, he said: "I learnt an important lesson of life in the lock-up -- survival is possible even with bear minimum. I slept on the floor, drank water that I would otherwise have not used, ate a meal I would not even have looked at and counted every breath to complete my 24 hours." Tears rolled down his eyes when he saw his parents and sister greet him with ¡®kumkum¡¯ and ¡®aarti¡¯ when he came out.

Astrologers claim that ¡®jail yog¡¯ in a ¡®kundali¡¯ may be countered by this remedy. Explaining the details, Bipin Pandey of LU¡¯s astrology department says: "There are three houses in a 'kundali' which are affected by the placement of "Raahu". The first is fourth house, in which a person is assigned by destiny to go to jail, but there is no fixed duration. It may be few hours, days, week or months. If Rahu is in the eighth house, a person is destined to go to jail and also face death sentence. Whereas in 12th house, a person is destined to go to jail multiple times. I usually advice people with Rahu in house number 4 and 12 to go and have meal in jail in order to remove its bad effects.¡±