In a significant legal development, the Supreme Court has granted interim bail to 104-year-old Rasik Chandra Mandal, who has been serving a life sentence for murder. Mandal, convicted in 1994 for a 1988 murder in Malda, West Bengal, filed a petition seeking release due to his advanced age and health issues.
Born in 1920, the year India’s non-cooperation movement began, Mandal was 68 when convicted for the crime and has been incarcerated ever since. Due to age-related ailments, he was moved to a correctional home in Balurghat, West Bengal, in 2019. His appeals for premature release had previously been denied by the Calcutta High Court and the Supreme Court.
In 2020, Mandal filed a writ petition with the Supreme Court seeking exemption from the usual 14-year sentence requirement for parole or remission, arguing that his advanced age and health warranted an early release. The Supreme Court had previously sought a report on his physical condition, with his lawyer informing the bench that Mandal was stable, though dealing with age-related issues, and was approaching his 104th birthday.
On Friday, a bench headed by Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar took up the case. After considering Mandal’s age and health, the bench issued an interim order granting his release on bail or parole in the case filed on November 9, 1988. Mandal, who had been convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in December 1994, had spent nearly three decades in legal battles, with the Calcutta High Court upholding his conviction in 2018 and the Supreme Court rejecting his final appeal in 2019.
Mandal’s petition, filed through his 48-year-old son, had requested his release so he could spend his remaining days with his family.
