The authorities have released ‘Jahalom’, who was in jail for three years after being wrongly accused of loan fraud, following High Court orders.
The Dhaka Central Jail authorities in Gazipur’s Kashimpur freed him in the wee hours of Tuesday after they received the court orders, the prison’s Superintendent Subrata Kumar Bala said.
Jahalom told the media at the jail gates that he will now seek compensation for his unlawful arrest.
He has demanded punishment of those who sent him to jail on charges he has nothing to do with, and his job back at the Bangladesh Jute Mills in Ghorashal.
Earlier in the day, the High Court bench of Justice FRM Nazmul Ahasan and Justice KM Kamrul Kader ordered Jahalom’s freedom in 26 cases started by the Anti-Corruption Commission.
“You (ACC) made the person, who should have been accused in the cases, a witness. Have you staged another Joj Mia drama?” Justice Kamal asked during the hearing.
Noting that an autonomous agency like the ACC is very important for Bangladesh, the judge said, “The development we are experiencing now will last long if the ACC does not work properly. It won’t take time for the country to become Pakistan. We will have to beg.”
The ACC in 2014 prosecuted one Abu Saleque in the 33 cases on charges related to loan fraud involving around Tk 185 million in Sonali Bank.
When the ACC sent for Saleque, the summons went to one ‘Jahalom’ from Tangail.
Jahalom then went to the ACC and asserted that he was not Saleque, the report said.
The photo used to open the Sonali Bank account was not of Jahalom either, he had told the ACC.
The officials of the bank, however, identified Jahalom as Saleque and the jute mill worker was eventually arrested in Ghorashal in 2016, bdnews24.com reported.
On January 28 this year, the High Court issued a set of rules asking the authorities why wrongly accused Jahalom will not be acquitted and why the court will not order his release.
ACC Director General (investigation) Md Mustafizur Rahman, plaintiff Jahid, Sayed Belal Hossai, joint secretary to Public Security Division, Ministry of Home Affairs, and Sayed Mushfiqul Islam, the representative of law secretary, appeared before the court on Sunday following summons.
The court is adjourned until March 6.
