New Delhi: A 105-year-old murder convict will now live as a free man after the Supreme Court of India on Friday permanently closed the case against him and waived the remainder of his life sentence on humanitarian grounds, citing his extreme old age.
Born in 1920 in the Malda district of West Bengal, Rasik Chandra Mondal was convicted in 1994 at the age of 68 in connection with a murder case. He spent decades incarcerated until November 2024, when the apex court initially granted him interim relief and released him on bail in consideration of his frail condition and age-related health ailments.
A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant and comprising Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V. Mohana ruled that Mondal would not be taken back into custody, formally making his 2024 interim bail absolute and final. The bench noted that taking into account the petitioner’s centenarian status and medical vulnerabilities, the proceedings stood closed and any remaining term of imprisonment was entirely waived.
Mondal had previously exhausted standard appeals, with the Calcutta High Court upholding his conviction in 2018 and the Supreme Court subsequently dismissing his initial challenges. In 2020, at the age of 99, he filed a writ petition seeking premature release due to severe geriatric health issues, leading the top court to seek responses from the West Bengal government before granting him relief and concluding the decades-long legal battle.
