Minor boy granted bail after 2 years

A minor boy got bail yesterday after languishing in jail in a case for two years.

He, now 16 as per the case, was arrested in October 2013 in the capital's airport area on charges of blasting three crude bombs during a hartal called by the BNP and its allies.

The Juvenile Court, Dhaka granted him bail after rights body Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST) appealed for it.

BLAST lawyer AM Jamiul Haque Faisal who moved the bail petition said the boy claimed to be of 11 years old now.

As no relative of the boy could be traced, the court said he would be in the custody of Faisal. 

“I spotted the boy around a month ago at court. I talked to him when he claimed to be innocent in tears,” Faisal told The Daily Star.

He quoted the boy as saying to him that police had arrested him when he was going to visit his grandmother's home in the airport area.

The child's mother is working as a domestic help abroad, Faisal said, adding that the boy also had talked about his elder brother but he could not be traced. 

According to the prosecution, the child was arrested after five street beggars had cited his involvement in bomb explosions.

Besides, the child admitted to police that a tea vendor named Ruman had given him Tk 500 and told him to explode crude bombs in the area.

Upon an investigation, Sub-inspector Lokman Hossain of Biman Bandar Police Station, on January 6 last year pressed charges against him.

The boy has been tried under the juvenile act while two other accused in the case are being tried at another Dhaka court.

Additional Public Prosecutor of the Juvenile Court Abdus Sattar Dulal said no lawyer had prayed for his bail earlier.

Moreover, they did not find any relative who would take him home after his bail. 

''Therefore, we did not raise any objection against the bail petition after advocate Faisal moved it,'' the PP said. 

The other accused of the case -- Ruman and Monsur -- have already been granted bail.