A woman in Chattogram has claimed that she is serving the life term of a convict who had promised to look after her children but did not keep her word.
Chattogram Fourth Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge Shariful Alam Bhuiyan on Tuesday ordered that the case be sent to the High Court, reports bdnews24.com.
The judge is convinced that Minu Akter, who has been in jail for nearly three years, is not the convict, said Omar Fuad, a bench assistant of the court.
Judge Shariful took the decision after speaking to the woman and checking the register of Chattogram Central Jail.
The original convict, Kulsuma Akter, had challenged in the High Court a lower court verdict that sentenced her to life in prison. She had to show that “she had surrendered” before making the appeal.
According to the case against Kulsuma, a garment factory worker named Kohinur Begum was murdered in the port city’s Rahmatganj on Jul 9, 2006 following a dispute over a mobile phone.
Kulsuma was freed on bail one and a half years after the police arrested her in 2007.
Besides sentencing her to life in prison, the court on Nov 30, 2017 fined her Tk 50,000.
A woman named Marzina Akter approached Minu, who has two sons and a daughter, with a proposal to look after her children in exchange for serving the jail term for Kusuma until bail, said Minu’s brother Rubel Hossain.
Minu, a woman from Cumilla’s Moynamati who lost her cart puller husband five years ago, agreed to the proposal, said Rubel.
Now her two sons live in an orphanage in Chattogram’s Sitakunda while the daughter lives with another family.
“Marzina has not contacted us, let along give money. Three years have passed, but they have not got my sister bailed,” said Rubel.
Minu surrendered to court on Jun 12, 2018. She informed the jail authorities on Mar 18 this year that she is not Kulsuma after Marzina broke her promise to help, said Golam Mawla, the lawyer for Minu.
Md Shafiqul Islam, senior superintendent of Chattogram Central Jail, said they checked the register after Minu insisted that she was not Kulsuma.
The authorities informed the court after finding that Kulsuma’s height and photo do not match Minu’s, Shafiqul said.