KOLKATA: The
Calcutta high court
on Wednesday granted bail to an intellectually disabled undertrial prisoner — languishing in the
Dum Dum Central Correctional Home
for nearly 41 years — and ordered that he be repatriated to his home country
Nepal
so that he can be reunited with his 90-year-old mother.
Durga Prasad Timsina
, alias Dipak Joshi/Jaisi, has been lodged in various jails for 41 years.
A school teacher in eastern
Nepal’s Lumbak village
, Durga Prasad, during a visit to Darjeeling, four decades ago, got embroiled in a murder case.
According to the case history, Durga Prasad had come to Darjeeling after being promised a job in the Indian Army.
The person who had made the promise allegedly made him commit a murder. The Sessions Case No. 31 of 1981 in the First Additional District & Sessions Judges, Darjeeling, is yet to be decided.
Another prisoner, who had been lodged in the Dum Dum central jail, told his friends about Durga Prasad.
Word reached HAM radio operators in Kolkata, who then contacted Nepal Radio Club, whose members launched a search and finally located his mother Manomaya Devi in Lumbak village of east Nepal.
Thereafter, she contacted the Nepal consulate and pleaded that she be reunited with her son.
Learning about Durga Prasad’s predicament, West Bengal State Legal Services Authority got his mental health condition professionally evaluated. The latter assessed that Durga Prasad’s IQ level was on a par with that of a 10-year-old, following which a conclusion was drawn that he was unfit to stand trial.
The division bench of Chief Justice Thottathil B Radhakrishnan and Justice Aniruddha Roy on Wednesday asked Durga Prasad be handed over to his relative Prakash Chandra Sharma Timsina and facilitate his return with the help of Nepal consulate.