Guy Born in Jail Bails Out His Mom, 19 Years Later

Vijai Kumari was pregnant when she went to jail in India 19 years ago, convicted—she says wrongfully—of murder. Her son Kanhaiya was born after she'd been imprisoned four months, and she eventually sent him away to be raised in various juvenile homes, she says: "It was hard but I was determined. Prison is no place for a young child." Kanhaiya faithfully visited his mother every three months, and when he turned 18, he hatched a plan to get her out, the BBC reports.

Kumari had been granted bail on appeal in 1994, reports the Daily Mail, but didn't have the $180 she needed, and she ended up lost in the system. "My father [Kumari's husband] turned his back on her," Kanhaiya says. So he got a job at a garment factory and saved enough money to hire a lawyer, who took the case and got Kumari freed earlier this month. Judges were shocked to hear how long she had languished in prison, forgotten, and ordered a sweep of all jails in the state to look for others in similar situations. (More India stories.)