Horizon scandal victim says Post Office 'must pay'

Davinder Misra's wife Seema went to jail despite being completely innocent

The husband of a sub-postmistress who was wrongly convicted and jailed while pregnant has said those responsible for the Horizon scandal "must pay" for the "dreams they took away from us".

Seema Misra, a sub-postmistress in West Byfleet, Surrey, was jailed in 2010 after an audit found a discrepancy in her accounts.

Speaking on Radio 4's Today programme, Davinder Misra said he was beaten up three times after his wife was labelled a "pregnant thief" by a local newspaper.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the government would bring in a new law to "swiftly exonerate" victims.

Mrs Misra's conviction was quashed by the Court of Appeal in 2021.

In 2010 she was given a 15 month sentence in Bronzefield Prison, when she was pregnant with the couple's second child after "a long medical struggle" to conceive.

The couple lied to her parents, who have since died, to protect them from the truth that their daughter was in jail.

When Mrs Misra's parents phoned from India wanting to talk to their daughter, Mr Misra told them she was out.

After making excuses for weeks, Mr Misra said his wife's parents accused him of killing their daughter.

Eventually Mrs Misra called home from prison and her husband would hold up the landline to his mobile to speak to her parents.

Meanwhile, Mr Misra told his young son that his mother was in hospital.

“Luckily the reception area in the prison was very welcoming, so he didn’t realise that she was in prison," he said.

He told his son the truth after Mrs Misra's conviction was quashed, and said he was "speechless".

“My mum and dad are really heroes. They’re fighters,” his son responded.

Their second child is now 12 and still "knows nothing" about what his parents went through.

"I want to move on. I want to live a peaceful life, but at the same time, we want proper justice," said Mr Misra.

"They've got to pay," he added.

A Post Office spokesperson previously said: "We share fully the aims of the public inquiry to get to the truth of what went wrong in the past and establish accountability.

"It's for the inquiry to reach its own independent conclusions after consideration of all the evidence on the issues that it is examining.

"We are doing all we can to put right the wrongs of the past."

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