Mangal Singh (Rajesh Khanna) has been a career criminal, whose criminal career began to steal food and to keep from starving, and thence got him in deeper and deeper in the criminal world. His crimes have caught up with him and he is sentenced to be hanged. He dramatically escapes with the help of underworld don, Suraj (Pinchoo Kapoor), and is on the run from the police. He lands up in a small village in Northern India, and becomes a school-teacher with the help of local restauranteur, Bijli (Mumtaz). He takes on the identity of Ramu, a friend of Shravan, and goes to live with Shravan's parents, Lalaji (Om Prakash) and Malti (Nirupa Roy), little knowing that they are the parents of a man he killed while escaping from the police.