Dhaka:The High Court has ordered the immediate release of Mohammad Almas, who has been wrongfully imprisoned for one year. Almas was mistakenly jailed in place of Mohammad Almach, who was sentenced to 10 years in an arms case.
According to Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha, the order was passed by a High Court division bench comprising Justice JBM Hassan and Justice Aziz Ahmed Bhuiyan. The decision followed a hearing on a writ petition filed by Almas, directing the prison authorities to act accordingly.
The legal representation for Almas included lawyers Mohammad Tanvir Ahmed and Abdullah Abu Sayed. On the state's behalf, Deputy Attorney General Shihab Uddin Khan and Assistant Attorneys General Mohiuddin Mohammad Hanif and Maria Tanzimat appeared in court.
An investigation report, prepared under the High Court's directives, confirmed that Almas is not the convicted individual in the case. The actual convict, Almach, currently resides in Canada. The confusion arose due to similarities in their fathers' names and incorrect address recordings in the case records.
The report detailed that Almas and his family resided in Bahra village, Dhaka, while the actual convict Almach was from Purba Dhoair village. An error in Almach's address in the 2002 arms case records, mistakenly noted as South Bahra, was also found in the arrest warrant.
The arms case was initially filed by police against Mohammad Almach and Mohammad Nazmul Alam Mamun at Mirpur Police Station on April 10, 2002. Almach was sentenced to 10 years by Dhaka Metropolitan Special Tribunal-11 in 2004, and he was absconding at the time of the verdict. Almas was subsequently arrested under the mistaken identity, presented as the convict, and jailed.