MACHANG LALUNG, who was undertrial for 56 years and had spent 54 years as undertrial prisoner, died in his native village Shilchang in Morigaon district, 75 kilometres from Guwahati. He was admitted to Guwahati Medical College hospital on December 20 after he fell down at his home and hurt his leg. He had been suffering from fever since then. But he did not want to stay in the hospital, so his grand daughter took him back home on December 24.

 

He died at 10.30 pm on December 25. He was cremated in his native village. In 1951, Machang Lalung was arrested by Assam police, as an accused under section 326 IPC. Thereafter, he had been sent to Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi mental hospital in Tezpur, during which his case never came up once for hearing.

 

Machang was handed over by the Assam police to his nephew Badan Pator, his only surviving kin, after the NHRC (National Human Rights Commission) sent notices following an inspection of undertrials in the state in March-April this year.

 

Machang was imprisoned on charges of ‘voluntarily causing grievous injuries with weapon or any other means’, at the age of 23 and was found mentally unstable to stand trial. Ironically, the police can’t even trace the original FIR. As per NHRC records, Machang was treated successfully and doctors said he was fit to defend himself. That was way back in August 1967, and then he was forgotten.

 

In 1996, after 45 years of his stay there, the hospital once again wrote to jail authorities saying that Machang’s ‘rehabilitation’ was complete and he could be taken back. But again, there was no response. Machang Lalung remained in ‘judicial’ custody. After the NHRC team’s visit, jail authorities tried to send him home.

 

Bireswar Boro, a young local resident finally helped make the connection. Boro went to the Tezpur mental hospital for treatment where he met a person who the authorities said was from the ‘same area’. He returned to tell the Lalung family that he had heard of a person called Machang Lalung languishing in the hospital for decades. The family sent two local residents to check out who returned convinced that Machang Lalung was the same person gone missing five decades ago. Authorities, too, checked the claims and established the connection. Thus when Machang was finally released, the Kamrup chief judicial magistrate let him go on a token personal bond of one rupee. It was celebration time for the entire village.

 

That was in July. As per order of NHRC state government had paid compensation and gave him free medical checkup time to time. A young filmmaker, Aneisha Sharma made ‘Freedom at the Edge’, a documentary film, based on the life of Machang Lalung. After tasting success at the recent Boston film festival, Aneisha Sharma’s documentary has been selected for the Mumbai International Film Festival 2008 (February 3 to 9) for the film and video competition (Indian) section of the festival.

 

This is the only entry to have been confirmed till now from the North East.