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The High Court has ordered the immediate release of Mohammad Almas, who spent 10 months in prison after being mistakenly arrested as a convicted arms case accused due to similarities in their names and addresses.
A High Court bench comprising Justice JBM Hasan and Justice Aziz Ahmed Bhuiyan issued the order on Sunday, directing the prison authorities to release him.
Lawyer Tanvir Ahmed represented Almas during the hearing, while Assistant Attorney General Barrister Mohiuddin Hanif appeared for the state.
A judicial inquiry report submitted to the High Court on November 5 found that the actual convict, Mohammad Almas, had been absconding since the beginning of the trial and was currently living in Canada. The man imprisoned for 10 months, meanwhile, was not involved in the case.
The actual convict is the son of Khilur Rahman of Purba Dhoair village in Nayabari Union, Dohar, Dhaka. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison in an arms case filed with Mirpur Police Station.
However, Mohammad Almas, the son of Sheikh Khalil from Kusumhati in Dohar, was arrested and imprisoned because of similarities in their names and addresses.
Seeking legal relief, the innocent man filed a writ petition with the High Court, which ordered a judicial inquiry into the incident. A judicial magistrate in Dhaka subsequently conducted the investigation and submitted a report identifying several errors and inconsistencies behind the mistaken arrest.
The report found that incorrect addresses had been recorded in the forwarding documents, police report and arrest warrant. Both men also had partially similar fathers’ names, while their villages fell under the same post office area.
However, their fathers’ and grandfathers’ names, family backgrounds, ages and occupations were different.
The actual convict was 24 in 2002, meaning he would be around 48 in 2026. The imprisoned Almas was born on December 10, 1985, and was around 17 in 2002.
The report also found that the actual convict had no occupation, while the wrongly arrested man earned his living through farming and electrical work.
Following the findings of the judicial inquiry, the High Court ordered Almas’s immediate release.
