Prisoner’s progress

He maintains he was framed. ‘‘I suffered over 50 per cent burn while trying to save my wife,’’ he whispers.

‘‘I wanted to commit suicide,’’ he says. But he had to live — for his daughter Nirmiti. ‘‘I had promised Sashikala (his wife) on her deathbed I would somehow raise our little girl,’’ he says.

It was after his conviction in 1994 that he began maintaining a diary of his writings. Soon afterwards, he was discovered by Marathi poet Narayan Surve on a visit to jail. Surve compiled a collection of his poems and had them published in 1998. ‘‘Salunke’s work is truly his inner voice,’’ Surve wrote in a foreword.

For Salunke, who worried about his daughter’s dream of becoming a lawyer, his new-found fame has been a life-saver. A government official has now promised to look after Nirmiti. The 17-yr-old is in a boarding school in Dhule. His next goal? To apply for parole, visit Nirmiti, and write an autobiography.