The High Court acquitted two convicts of a cattle smuggling case on Wednesday after they had each served five years in jail in this case 27 years ago.
The acquitted men were identified as Abdul Quader, a local farmer of Sharsha in Jessore and Mofizur Rahman, who has already passed away, of the same area.
Jessore court awarded the duo with five years of jail in 1987 and they were freed in 1991 after serving the jail term.
According to the case statement, Lance Naik Amir Ali of the then Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) filed the case against the two with Sharsha police station in 1986 on charges of illegally smuggling six cattle into Bangladesh from India.
The following year, a Jessore court sentenced Quader and Mofizur to five years' imprisonment over the case.
After a lower court verdict in 1987, the two convicts filed an appeal with the then High Court bench in Jessore.
Later, in the same year, the Jessore HC was abolished and the case reached Dhaka High Court and had remained pending since then.
After 27 years, the case finally came on the cause list of the High Court and a notice seeking the appointment of lawyers to run the appeal arrived at the residence of Abdul Quader, catching him by surprise.
The Jessore farmer then rushed to Dhaka and sought the help of the Supreme Court Legal Aid Committee which prepared the appeal for its hearing before the HC.
The HC bench of Justice Rezaul Haque, acquitted the duo of the charges after hearing the appeal on Tuesday.
SC Legal Aid Committee panel lawyer Advocate Kumar Debul Dey said the verdict, in fact, will not bring any positive outcome for them but from now on they can claim themselves innocent as the HC has acquitted them of the charge.