HC orders immediate release of innocent man jailed in arms case over name mix-up

The High Court has ordered the immediate release of Md Almas, who spent a year in jail after being mistaken for another man convicted in an arms case because they share the same name.

A bench of Justice JBM Hasan and Justice Aziz Ahmad passed the order today (8 November), Assistant Attorney General Mohiuddin Md Hanif told journalists.

The arms case was filed with Mirpur Police Station in 2002. In 2004, a trial court sentenced Md Almas, an absconding accused from Dohar in Dhaka, to 10 years in prison.

In November 2025, police arrested another man named Md Almas, 21 years after the verdict. His family members subsequently claimed that he was not the person convicted in the case, raising questions about whether the authorities had arrested the right individual.

The matter reached the High Court in September this year. On 6 September, the court issued a rule in response to a writ petition and ordered an inquiry to establish the identities and details of the man in prison and the convicted accused.

The court directed the chief judicial magistrate of Dhaka to arrange the investigation through a senior judicial magistrate under his supervision.

Senior Judicial Magistrate Mahfuzur Rahman conducted the inquiry, and the report was submitted to the High Court on 1 November.

According to the report, the man arrested in November 2025 and the person convicted in the Mirpur arms case are two different individuals.

It also found that the actual convicted accused, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison, is currently living in Canada.

The report confirmed that the man who had been in prison for a year was not the person convicted in the case.