The High Court has stayed an arrest warrant issued against Noakhali man Mohammad Zahir Uddin after it was revealed that the actual suspect in the case Modasser Ansari had intentionally misidentified himself.
The court has asked the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) to submit a probe report on the matter within two months.
According to lawyer Md Asad Uddin, who represented writ petitioner Zahir along with Advocate Mohammad Shishir Monir, Khilgaon police arrested Modasser Ansari in a vandalism case on October 12, 2013. However, Ansari identified himself to police as Mohammad Zahir Uddin and listed Zahir’s address as his own.
Subsequently, Ansari secured bail as Zahir on October 31 the same year, before absconding.
Later, police submitted a charge sheet against Zahir on April 8, 2018, and a Dhaka court issued an arrest warrant for him on October 11, 2017.
However, when Zahir learned that police were looking for him, he contacted the jail authorities and collected both documents and photos to prove that he had not been arrested in 2013 before filing a writ petition with the High Court. The hearing on the writ was held yesterday.
In addition to staying the arrest warrant against Zahir, the court also issued a rule asking why the arrest warrant should not be declared illegal. The secretary of the Home Ministry, inspector general of police, and inspector general of prisons have been made respondents to the rule. They have to respond to the rule within four weeks.
The same bench of the High Court on Monday ordered the immediate release of a prisoner who has spent four years in jail for a one year sentence.
