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HC grants 6-month ad-interim bail to man jailed instead of actual convict


The High Court today granted six months' ad-interim bail to an "innocent man" named Manik Hawlader, who has been serving a jail sentence instead of the convict in a drug case.

At the same time, the High Court ordered convict Manik Miah of Shariatpur's Bhedarganj to surrender before the trial court concerned immediately in connection with the case.

While hearing a writ petition, the HC bench of Justice JBM Hassan and Justice Md Khairul Alam also ordered the district and sessions judge of Shariatpur to send all relevant documents of the case to the court in 30 days. The chief judicial magistrate of Shariatpur also asked to record statements from the investigation officers of the case about implicating Manik Hawlader and to send the statement to the HC in 30 days, Deputy Attorney General Tushar Kanti Roy told The Daily Star.

He said the HC bench sought the case documents and statements of investigation officers to examine why Manik Hawlader has been implicated and sent to jail instead of convicted Manik Miah and who are responsible for this. Meanwhile, petitioner's lawyer Partha Sarathi Ray told The Daily Star Shariatpur's Senior Judicial Magistrate Md Shamsul Alam today submitted a judicial probe report to the HC bench saying that Manik Hawlader is innocent. Manik Hawlader and Manik Miah are two different people and there is no similarity in their names, he added, citing the judicial probe report.