‘You get used to jail’ – after decades in prison, 104-year-old West Bengal man walks out

“I’m missing jail, but now I’m happy,” he tells The Indian Express. “I had roti-tarkari last night and slept well. Today, I had muri (rice crisps) for breakfast and macher jhol (fish curry and rice) for lunch.”

On November 29, a Supreme Court Division Bench of Chief Justice of India Sanjeev Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar ordered Rashik’s release on parole. The order came 24 years after he was first convicted by a lower court for the 1988 murder of his brother Suresh Mondol over a property dispute.

By the time the order came, he had already spent 10 years in jail. Rashik is fuzzy on the details of the killing as well as the property dispute. His son Uttam Mandal, who accompanied his father back home Tuesday, claims Rashik’s memory “falters sometimes”.

According to the family, Rashik was born in 1920 and owned a few bighas of land. Apart from Uttam, he has three more sons (elder son passed away few years back)

The FIR registered in 1988 in the murder case names 18 people — including Rashik. In 1998, a court in Malda sentenced Rashik and one other person to life imprisonment. He was 68 then.

In 2018, Rashik appealed the sentence in Calcutta High Court, which turned it down. He then approached the Supreme Court, where it met a similar fate.

In 2020, Rashik, then 99, once again appealed to the Supreme Court for release, citing his age and health. In 2021, the court asked the West Bengal government to submit a report on the health status of Rashik.

In its report, the state government said Rashik was “mentally fine and agile” but the Supreme Court eventually ordered his release.

For Rashik’s family, the parole order comes after years of court appeals and lakhs of rupees in lawyer fees. By the time he was released, his co-convict in the case, Jiten Tanti, who was also serving a life term, had already passed away while out on parole.

“My father is 103 years now and in three months, he’ll be 104,” says Uttam, who is a daily-wage labourer. “He can barely walk. Whatever their crime, people who are so old shouldn’t be kept behind bars. “

The family, including Rashik’s wife Meena (85), now plans to celebrate his birthday. And although all Rashik wants to do is tend to his garden, that must wait: first he must attend to the many village residents that are thronging their house to meet him.

“I never expected to return but here I am,” he says. “So many years inside jail, I got used to it. I will miss it.”