Yaba trader out on forged bail papers
A drug dealer arrested with 5,000 yaba tablets in Chittagong secured bail from the High Court by forging the charge sheet that stated he was caught with only 180 pills.
A lawyer and his clerk forged the first information report (FIR), seizure list, and charge sheet for Fazlul Karim to free him after a Chittagong Court denied him bail.
Detectives arrested Fazlul, his HC Lawyer Abdus Samad and his clerk Boni Amin in the capital's Bangshal on Saturday and came to know about a gang of crooked lawyers and clerks that recently forged documents in at least 12 other cases and freed the accused.
Briefing reporters at Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Media Centre, Detective Branch (DB) Joint Commissioner Abdul Baten yesterday said most of the suspects who went on the loose through forgery were arrested under Narcotics Control Act.
After Fazlul was arrested with the haul of yaba tablets by Bayezid Bostami Police last July, he was sent to jail. But he was freed on bail on February 29, Baten said.
Besides, forged documents of 13 cases, police found 81 seals of different district and session judges courts and deputy jailers in the arrestees possession.
The arrested lawyer and his clerk admitted in primary interrogation that they had recently secured bail of another drug dealer Hasan, who was arrested with 6,000 pieces of yaba in the capital's Mugdah area last year.
“They used to help criminals secure bail by forging documents and concealing facts,” Baten said.
In some cases, the gang simply forged bail orders from courts and took those to respective jail authorities and hoodwinked jailers, added the police official.
Samad charged between Tk 50,000 and Tk 2 lakh for securing bails, Baten said, adding that the gang had been active for years.
Detectives said they identified at least six other lawyers and some clerks involved in the crime and were looking for them.
On March 22, a Dhaka court sentenced five people, including a bench assistant (peshkar) of another court, to 14 years' imprisonment each, for faking bail orders and forging the signature of a judge.
The verdict came in a case filed against them in 2015 in connection with freeing 106 suspects in 76 criminal cases.
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