LUCKNOW: While jail is a place even hardened criminals would usually like to avoid, some superstitious believers choose to spend time behind bars of their own free will and without having broken the law. The reason for this unusual yearning is the belief that their ‘kundali’, or horoscope, will be neutralised with jail time.Ramesh Singh, 38, a businessman from Gomtinagar, served a 24-hour ‘imprisonment’ in May. “After going through my ‘kundali’, our family astrologer revealed that I have a ‘jail yog’ which would land me in trouble in future. Everyone in the family got scared. The astrologer then suggested that if I spend some time in jail without any fault, the threat would end,” Singh said.He moved an application before the district administration at the end 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 police station. His astrologer instructed him to follow all jail rules for undertrials during his stay, including consuming the food served to them. “I pray to god to pardon any sin and help me stay on the right path so that I never commit any crime,” Singh said.The district administration helps these believers fulfil their wish. Lucknow DM Kaushal Raj Sharma said his office receives 24 such requests a year. “Applicants urge us to allow them to spend 24-48 hours in jail.” While only a court can pronounce a ‘jail sentence’, those making these requests are nevertheless allowed to spend time in lock-up.There is no legal provision that allows us to lodge a person without any criminal record in lock-up. But we permit those 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 — including the ‘kundali’ of the applicant — are checked,” said a district administration officer.Another believer is Ankit Chaturvedi chose to go 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 the bare 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.”Astrologers claim that ‘jail yog’ can be countered by this practice. Bipin Pandey of Lucknow University’s astrology department said: “There are three houses in a ‘kundali’ which are affected by the placement of “Raahu”. The first is the fourth house, in which a person is assigned by destiny to go to jail, but there is no fixed duration. If Raahu is in the eighth house, a person is destined to go to jail and also face death sentence. Whereas in the 12th house, a person is destined to go to jail multiple times.”