After offering an unconditional apology, the officer-in-charge of Akhaura Police Station in Brahmanbaria yesterday secured exemption from a High Court rule that questioned the legality of misreporting a businessman as dead.

The HC accepted the apology of OC Mosharraf Hossain Tarafdar and exempted him from the rule after cautioning him to ensure that such an incident does not take place in the future.

The court also directed the religious affairs ministry to take necessary steps so that Azad Hossain Bhuiyan, the man who was reported as dead, can go to Saudi Arabia for performing hajj.

The bench of Justice Syed Muhammad Dastagir Husain and Justice Md Ataur Rahman Khan passed the order. Azad had filed the writ challenging the legality of the police report.

A permanent resident and businessmen of Akhaura, Azad said in the petition that he had already deposited the required fees and his passport to the authority for the hajj pilgrimage. He needed the clearance document.

But the OC submitted a police verification report to the Special Branch office, saying that Azad had died. The report was posted on the website of the Ministry of Religious Affairs on June 20, he said.

He prayed to the HC to direct the authorities to correct the police report so that he could go to Saudi Arabia for hajj.

Following the petition, the HC on July 17 issued a rule asking the authorities to explain in a week why the police report should not be declared illegal and also summoned OC Mosharraf before it for his explanation.

Advocate AM Aminuddin and Advocate Shaharia Kabir Biplob appeared for the OC, while Advocate M Khaled Ahmed and Advocate Kaiser Zahid Bhuiyan argued for the petitioner.