Man who spent 54 yrs in jail without trial is dead

A LONG WAIT FOR JUSTICE: Lalung was in custody for nearly 54 years for a petty crime.

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Tezpur: Machang Lalung, who was kept under custody for more than half a century without a trial and forgotten, is dead.

Released in July 2005, the 77-year-old was beginning to savour freedom with his family in his village near Tezpur when death snatched him away.

Lalung was only 23 when he was arrested in 1951 for a petty crime and never faced a trial. He went on to serve almost 54 years initially in police custody and later on at the Tezpur Mental hospital.

Lalung was in custody for so long that he even forgot the reason why he was sent to jail in the first place.

“I feel happy to be with my family but I don’t remember why I was taken to jail,” Lalung said.

After living in an asylum for so long, Lalung could barely put his thoughts across. He lived his last days with his niece Sadhna Pator.

“I remember my mother telling me about him though I had never seen him before. See he lost his fingers after a fit of epilepsy in his younger days. Mother also spoke to us about his incident,” Sadhna Pator said.

Lalung was released from jail by sheer luck, after someone happened to spot him at the asylum at Tezpur, which was 90 kilometers from his village.

But for the 77-year-old justice came 54 years too late.