Bireswar Boro (left) and Machal Lalung stand in front of the latter?s new home in Silchang. Picture by S.H. Patgiri

Silchang (Nellie), July 25: Septuagenarian Machal Lalung spent 54 years of his life as an undertrial prisoner in an asylum. Yet, ironically, it was another mentally-ill person ? Bireswar Boro ? who paved the way for him to regain his freedom.

Lalung?s grandson Sombar Pator disclosed that Boro, who hails from their village of Silchang, helped his family get in touch with the LGB Regional Institute of Mental Health in Tezpur on June 28.

Lalung was released on a bond of Rs 1 by the chief judicial magistrate?s court in Guwahati on July 1. He was booked under Section 326 of the IPC in 1951, but has never faced trial.

Though he was being treated in hospital for schizophrenia since April 14, 1951, he was declared fit on July 22, 1967.

Boro said an acquaintance at the hospital informed him about an old man who claimed to be from Silchang. Boro, who had gone to the hospital for a routine check-up, has been undergoing treatment for the past five years.

?When I told him I was from Silchang, I was surprised as the old man said he was from Silchang Kholagaon, the original name of my native village. Soon after I returned home, I spread the word about the old man. That is how the Pators got to know of him,? Boro said.

When word reached Sombar?s father and Lalung?s nephew, Badan, he asked Sombar to accompany Boro to Tezpur.

?The hospital immediately contacted the jailer at Guwahati, who came to Silchang the next day and took Sombar to Guwahati for identification,? said Boro. The identification was soon completed and Lalung was set free.