An Indian court has freed a man who languished in jail or a mental home in the eastern state of Assam for 54 years without ever facing trial, police said Sunday. Machang Lalung, 77, was arrested in 1951 in his native village of Silsang, 64 kilometres (40 miles) from the state's main city of Guwahati.
Police said records showed Lalung, a tribal, was booked for "voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons or means," an offence carrying a maximum 10-year prison term.
But they said there were no records backing up the accusation.
Soon after his arrest police shifted Lalung to a mental asylum. Though certified "fully recovered" by asylum authorities in 1967, prison officials only returned him to jail this year. In May the National Human Rights Commission took up Lalung's case and sought his release. He was freed last week after posting a token personal bond of one rupee (two cents).
Magistrate H.K. Sarma, who released Lalung, had harsh words for India's notoriously slow-moving and inefficient legal system.
"This is a situation where neither the executive nor the judiciary can shirk or skip responsibility on technical grounds," Sarma said. "It is the question of life and liberty of a person who was in judicial custody for 54 years...and who was not brought before the court to face trial even long after his recovery from mental ill-health." After Lalung's release, police escorted him back to his village.
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