The 85-year-old Deep Rai hardly remembers anything about the incident that took place 33 years ago. Sleeping on a charpai (cot) in a dhoti, he stares at the ceiling. His house is in Jurawanpur village, in Bihar’s Vaishali district. Sentenced to three years of rigorous imprisonment by the Vaishali Court on June 2, 2026, Deep is one of the five accused who have been convicted in an attempt to murder case and violations of the Arms Act.His daughter, Uma Devi, 50, tries to keep him cool and stirs the hot air gently with a hand-fan. There is not much relief from the 40°C heat outside. The house holds just the father and daughter, with villagers dropping in to visit.His wife Munnar Devi, died 15 years ago at 70, and his son and daughter-in-law, in their 50s, now look after Deep. He cannot walk anymore, crippled by arthritis and Alzheimer’s disease, and spends the day mostly asleep on the cot. Still, in the manner of those who rise with the sun, he wakes at 5 a.m. Uma says he has only a few teeth left so he is mostly on a liquid diet of sattu (roasted gram powder), milk, and rice mashed in its starch water.On the day of the verdict, his son and a few villagers managed to get him into an auto, and took him to the court in Hajipur, nearly 35 kilometres from the village. The court gave Deep bail the same day, and the family plans to appeal to the High Court.In December 2025, the then Deputy Chief Minister, now Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary had said that there were over 1.8 million pending cases in various courts across Bihar.