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An innocent man has spent the past 10 months in jail after being mistakenly identified as a convicted arms offender, while the actual convict, sentenced to 10 years in prison, is living in Canada, according to an investigation report submitted to the High Court.
The report, prepared following a High Court order, found that Mohammad Almas, son of Sheikh Khalil of Kusumhati in Dohar, Dhaka, is not the person convicted in the arms case.
The actual convict is Mohammad Almas, son of Khalilur Rahman, from Purba Dhoair village under Nayabari Union of Dohar.
The two men are entirely different individuals, the report said.
The investigation report was submitted on Thursday to a High Court bench comprising Justice JBM Hassan and Justice Aziz Ahmed Bhuiyan.
The court has fixed Sunday for passing an order on the matter, Assistant Attorney General Barrister Mahiuuddin Mohammad Hanif said.
Mohammad Almas was arrested by police and sent to jail after being identified as the convict sentenced to 10 years in an arms case filed with Mirpur Police Station in Dhaka.
However, he challenged his detention before the High Court, claiming that he was innocent and had been wrongly identified.
Following an initial hearing on his writ petition, the High Court ordered a judicial investigation into the incident.
Senior Judicial Magistrate Mahfuzur Rahman subsequently conducted the investigation and submitted the report to the court.
How the mistaken identity occurred
According to the report, discrepancies in the address recorded in the forwarding report, police investigation report and arrest warrant issued after the conviction contributed to the wrongful arrest.
The investigation identified several factors behind the confusion.
First, both men had connections to villages under the South Bahra post office.
The arrested Almas and his family lived in Bahra village before 2007, while the actual convict’s village, Purba Dhoair, also falls under the same post office.
As a result, their addresses became confused because people often identified their locations by the post office name.
There were also similarities in their fathers’ names, further contributing to the mistaken identification.
The actual convict’s address was incorrectly recorded as South Bahra instead of Purba Dhoair, and the error continued in subsequent legal documents, including the arrest warrant.
Family backgrounds and ages differ
The investigation found that the two men had entirely different family backgrounds.
According to the report, the actual convict’s father was identified as Khalilur Rahman or Mohammad Abul Khair (Khalil), while the arrested man is the son of Sheikh Khalil.
Their grandfathers’ names also differ. The actual convict’s grandfather was Sheikh Shahor Ali, while the arrested Almas’s grandfather was Sheikh Nawab Ali.
The family structures provide further evidence of the mistaken identity. The actual convict has three sisters and is their only brother.
In contrast, the arrested Almas has two brothers and two sisters. None of the siblings’ names matched between the two families.
Age differences also raised questions about the identification. The actual convict was 24 years old when he was sentenced in 2002, meaning he would be around 48 in 2026. However, the arrested Almas was born on December 10, 1985, making him around 41 this year.
He was approximately 17 when the conviction was handed down.
Different occupations and places of residence
The report also found significant differences in their lifestyles and occupations.
The actual convict used to live in Paikpara in Mirpur.
The investigation report of Mirpur Police Station did not mention any specific occupation for him.
In contrast, the arrested Almas earned his livelihood through farming in Bahra and later Sundaripara, as well as electrical work.
The actual convict’s address was also recorded as Purba Dhoair in his vakalatnama (power of attorney for legal representation) and in a High Court bail order, further establishing that he was a different person from the man currently in custody.
The investigation concluded, based on witness statements and documentary evidence, that the arrested Mohammad Almas and the convicted Mohammad Almas are two separate individuals with different family identities, addresses and personal backgrounds.
The findings have brought the wrongful identification and detention to the attention of the High Court, which is scheduled to issue an order on Sunday.
