Man Wrongfully Imprisoned for 43 Years Detained by ICE Immediately After Being Released from Prison By Sean Neumann

After more than 40 years behind bars for a crime he didn’t commit, Subramanyam “Subu” Vedam and his family are now fighting for his freedom from another U.S. institution.

The 64-year-old was exonerated from a 1980 murder charge earlier this month after newly uncovered evidence proved the innocence he and his family have protested for more than four decades.

But before Vedam could return home or embrace his family, upon release he was immediately taken into custody and detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers under the threat of being deported to India, where he hasn’t lived since he was 9 months old, well over half a century ago.

Vedam, who had also received a simultaneous two-and-a-half year sentence for a drug offense upon his 1983 murder conviction, had his murder conviction vacated on Oct. 2, 2025, records show. He was released from prison and taken into ICE custody on Oct. 3, according to the BBC, The Miami Herald, and USA Today.

PEOPLE has reached out to a spokesperson for Vedam for an update on his condition and the latest efforts to secure his freedom from U.S. detention, but did not immediately hear back Monday.

Jason Koontz, a spokesperson for ICE, claimed in a statement to PEOPLE that Vedam is a “career criminal with a rap sheet dating back to 1980” and said the 64-year-old “will be held in ICE custody while the agency arranges for his removal in accordance with all applicable laws and due-process requirements.”

Koontz, the ICE spokesperson, did not respond to PEOPLE’s multiple requests for comment about Vedam’s condition and treatment while in federal immigration custody, including whether he has been allowed contact with his family or legal representatives, or whether he is receiving adequate food and shelter.

The BBC reported that ICE is keeping Vedam in a crowded confinement with roughly 60 other men. PEOPLE has been unable to confirm Vedam’s current detention conditions, however, because the ICE spokesperson didn’t return PEOPLE’s inquiries for clarity. A search of ICE’s online inmate locator turned up no results for Vedam on Monday.

Vedam has reportedly been able to send messages to his family, according to BBC, telling them: “My name has been cleared, I’m no longer a prisoner, I’m a detainee.”

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Vedam grew up in State College, Pa., but was born in India while his parents, who lived in the U.S., were visiting the country, according to USA Today.

“We tease him that he has more of a Philadelphia accent than anything else, because that’s the only way he’s ever spoken,” Vedam’s niece, Zoë Miller-Vedam, told the outlet.

Vedam was wrongfully convicted of first-degree murder on February 8, 1983 in connection with the death of his former childhood friend and one-time roommate Thomas Kinser, whom he grew up with in Pennsylvania.

Vedam had asked Kinser for a ride the day he disappeared in December 1980, according to USA Today. Kinser’s car was returned, but no one saw it come back, making Vedam the last known person to see his friend alive. Kinser’s remains, with a bullet hole in his skull, were discovered the following September in a sinkhole in the woods by two teenagers collecting firewood, per the Exoneration Registry.

Leaning on circumstantial evidence and testimony later determined to be made under pressure by local police, according to the Exoneration Registry, Vedam was sentenced to life in prison but continued to appeal his conviction over the next 40-plus years.

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After two murder trials during the 1980s and three ensuing petitions for post-conviction relief, Vedam’s conviction was eventually granted another legal review this past August. Centre County District Attorney Bernie Cantorna ultimately decided to not pursue another trial against Vedam.

But immediately after being released from prison, Vedam was taken into custody by ICE agents based on a 1988 deportation order made amid his second trial, which alleged Vedam was a “foreigner likely to flee.” 

The BBC reported that Vedam’s family expected to have the chance to appeal the 1988 order and work to admonish it once he was released from prison. But now, Vedam’s family finds itself fighting another battle for his freedom.

“All we want is for him to be home with us and to be able to move forward in life,” Miller-Vedam, Vedam’s niece, told USA Today, noting that he would likely need to depend on his family and struggle in a world that has drastically changed technologically and socially since he was first imprisoned more than 40 years ago.

“What was deeply disappointing was that we didn’t even have a moment to hold him in our arms,” Vedam’s sister Saraswathi Vedam told BBC. “He was held wrongly and one would think that he conducted himself with such honor and purpose and integrity that that should mean something.”