108-Year-Old Prisoner Freed After Serving 24 Years In Prison

When Hindu priest Brij Bihari Pandey was convicted of murder in 2009, he was given a life sentence, but he wasn’t expected to spend that long behind bars because, well, he was pushing 106.

Now, two years later, Pandey is walking out of jail (actually being carried is a better term) and is a free man at last.

Pandey was arrested along with 15 men for the 1987 murders of four people over the inheritance of a Hindu religious institution, the IANS news agency reported.

He was already 84 at the time, but the trial went on for more than two decades.

Pandey spent most of his sentence in a hospital, and was released on bail May 26. He was set free after his son, Avneesh, along with two others, secured his release from a jail in Gorakhpur on grounds of ill health, according to Stuff.co.nz.

"He has become very old now and cannot walk on his own. Since he has come out of the jail, so we are now taking proper care of him," said Vandana Mishra, Pandey’s granddaughter.

He is believed to be the oldest prisoner in the history of Indian prisons, but, interestingly, the relatives weren’t the ones behind Pandey’s release. It was the jail authorities who were finding it difficult to provide him the required medical treatment.

"Pandey had been quite unwell for the past few months and it was becoming increasingly difficult to take care of him as we had to shift him from the jail hospital to the local civil hospital for specialised treatment,” Jail Superintendent Shiv Kumar Sharma told IANS.com. “Therefore, we moved an application for his bail, that was kindly granted by the high court."

So far, Pandey isn’t commenting much about his time behind bars, but sources say he is happy to be free.

"God is great, thank you," Pandey reportedly said upon his release from jail, according to the BBC.

Comments

[Mitch Faulk]

12:01 AM on 06/22/2011

With our health care system heading in the direction that it is, some people with terminal illnesses may actually have themselves locked up so they can get free medical treatment. There is nothing free about Obamacare and will leave a lot of people un/under insured. You can bet that they will not be treating terminal patients with care and compassion. All the government will see willl be the dollar signs in the cost of treating them .

[Robert Hale]

01:05 PM on 06/23/2011

What leads you to believe socialized medicine in prison will be better then socialized medicine in the free world?

[PARROTNSHAME]

11:20 PM on 06/21/2011

I don't know what is more sick, if the crimes he did or jailing an elderly man?

[Anton Grimes]

12:54 AM on 06/22/2011

how is murder equal to keeping him in prison?

MURDER

[ilovevegas]

10:54 AM on 06/21/2011

Sounds like he became more of a nusiance to the system with constant health care issues.

[PlayTOE]

08:50 AM on 06/21/2011

kicked out of prison so he doesn't have to get government provided health care. (want to bet this sort of thing begins to happen in the USA?)

[Anne Haig]

01:58 PM on 06/23/2011

Don't kid yourself, it already happens. Lots of inmates are granted parole when they're in their 60s or 70s because the prison system doesn't want to pay for them. Shifts the costs to Medicare, doesn't end up on their bottom line.

[Dub Sack]

08:45 AM on 06/21/2011

No back or neck support.. Thats a great way to carry a brittle old man lol

[Rahree B]

03:31 PM on 06/26/2011

Does it really matter? The guy is a freakin' murderer and looks half dead anyway.

[ArtsyJane]

07:48 AM on 06/21/2011

He doesn't look a year older than 106.

[cameron d]

02:13 AM on 06/21/2011

Another hardened criminal loose on the streets...

[cameron d]

02:09 AM on 06/21/2011

How does an 84 year old murder anyone? How does a trial take 22 years? How does /why would anyone live to 108? So many questions...

[Hannibal55]

12:32 PM on 06/21/2011

perhaps he removed his dentures and bit the guy.

[Robin Boling]

12:37 PM on 06/22/2011

It was a group of people who committed the murder.
India is well known for it's gigantic, corrupt, overreaching, and overloaded bureaucracy.
He ate his fiber..

[Rahree B]

03:32 PM on 06/26/2011

Poisoned curry, most likely.

[GohBokhor]

12:51 AM on 06/21/2011

what were they feeding him?

...can someone carry me? :o

[KIVPossum]

12:46 AM on 06/21/2011

There's something wrong with a system that takes 22 years to bring a defendent to trial

[David Jeffers]

01:44 AM on 06/21/2011

It's India...and we are right in front of them peddling as fast as we can to stay ahead.

[Susan Shaffer]

12:41 AM on 06/21/2011

hah!
outsourcing medical care to indians.

[Ronald Ferreira]

11:07 PM on 06/20/2011

leavem in prison thats what life in pprison means he killled a man so why should he get away again to kill once more

[8xInfinity]

05:23 AM on 06/21/2011

That was a joke, right?

[Mitch Faulk]

11:58 PM on 06/21/2011

Unfortunately I do not think this was meant to be a joke. I believe he was dead serious. Such a sad society we live in.

[bdyftns]

11:03 PM on 06/20/2011

I'm not sure I'd trust him. Put him back in for another 10 years or so.

[colbryce]

11:15 PM on 06/20/2011

Yes.....you can never be too careful.....He looks dangerous to me!!!

[360Dunk]

10:48 PM on 06/20/2011

They're picking him up like he's a bag of yard trimmings. At 108...can you say osteoporosis and broken bones?

[ipleathe5thh]

10:29 PM on 06/20/2011

Not to sound cold hearted about it but he was setence to LIFE in prison even though it was in his 80's at the time of the crime that shouldn't matter if you and i were sent to prison here in america for life we would in fact be in there for life we'd never get out due to being sick so why should he be allowed to get out they cite his medical problems and costing too much money too bad cuff him to a bed in a local hospital

[Brian Berneker]

11:14 PM on 06/20/2011

He's already prisoner in his own body, and frankly the freedom is little more than an ironic slap in the face since he is no longer able to enjoy it in his physical condition. Death with come for him soon enough like sleep. Besides, we wouldn't want to "inconvenience" the jails with having to care for him. They didn't LET him out, they threw him out as a liability.

[colbryce]

11:17 PM on 06/20/2011

He probably didn't even get a gold watch!!!!

[8xInfinity]

05:26 AM on 06/21/2011

Actually, in certain cases, medical releases happen in the US. It's rare, but it is a real thing. (Look up "Compassionate Release")