Justice at cost of 28yrs

Thirty-two years ago, Abdul Kader was going to a local cattle market in Saatmile area of Jessore with two cattle he had brought from home. With him was his neighbour Mofizur Rahman who also had two to sell.

They were stopped by the members of the then Bangladesh Rifles and asked for documentations for the cattle, which the duo did not have.

A lance nayek of the paramilitary force filed a smuggling case in 1986 against Kader and Mofizur, inhabitants of Hari Chandanpur village in Sharsha of Jessore.

On March 30, 1987, a Jessore court sentenced them to five years' imprisonment.

Kader and Mofiz served three years before getting bail. They then filed an appeal with the then High Court bench in Jessore and waited.

Their wait was long.

Yesterday, after 28 years the High Court declared that the two were innocent.

"I am happy," said Kader, now 55, over the phone from his village yesterday.

Unlike the father of two, Mofiz was not so lucky.

Mofiz passed away years ago knowing his name has not been cleared.

Kader yesterday said, "I felt relieved getting the notice from the High Court after so many years … ."

Amir Ali, a BDR lance nayek, filed the case with Sharsha Police Station in Jessore on August 27, 1986, lawyer Cumar Debul Dey, who moved the case for the duo's acquittal before the HC, told this paper.

Cumar said after the Jessore High Court was abolished in 1990 and case was sent to the HC in Dhaka and since then the case remained pending.

In November last year, the HC registrar's office sent a letter to the Supreme Court Legal Aid Committee, saying that Mofiz and Kader's lawyer Md Abdul Wahhab had passed away.

The committee took steps for the hearing of the appeal and engaged lawyer Cumar, Ripan Paul Sku, an official of the committee, told The Daily Star.

Ripan said Kader had gone to the committee office on November 30 last year following a HC notice to get legal aid from the committee.

Kader was under the impression that the case proceedings had been completed, Ripan added.

The HC bench of Justice Quazi Reza-Ul Hoque held a hearing on the appeal on Tuesday and delivered the verdict yesterday, acquitting both. The case had been pending with the High Court for almost 28 years.

During Tuesday's hearing, Cumar told the HC that the prosecution had failed to prove that Kader and Mofiz illegally smuggled the cattle in from India.