In a landmark verdict, the High Court today upheld five years' jail sentence of a convict in a narcotics related case but allowed him to stay with his family on three conditions.

The court granted probation facilities to convict Moti Matbor so that he can stay with his family, instead of going to jail, on the conditions.

The conditions are: Moti Matbor must ensure continuation of studies of his daughter and son, take care of his 75-year-old mother, and cannot marry his daughter (now 15) off until she turns 18.

If the convict, now on bail, complies with the conditions for next one and a half years, he does not need to go to jail. Otherwise, his probation facilities will be cancelled and he will have to serve the imprisonment, the HC ruled in the verdict.

The probation officer concerned will monitor whether Moti Matbor fulfils the conditions for one and a half years, the HC said in the judgment.

The HC bench of Justice Zafar Ahmed came up with the verdict after hearing a revision petition filed by Moti Matbor, challenging the trial court judgment that sentenced him to five years' imprisonment in the case.

Mohammad Shishir Manir, lawyer for Moti, told The Daily Star that this is a landmark verdict of the HC under the Probation Ordinance, 1960.

Shishir Manir said police arrested Moti, a man from Shuvadda area in Keraniganj, with 411 yaba tablets on November 23, 2015. A case was filed with Kotwali Police Station in Dhaka the same day, and he was sentenced to five years' imprisonment in the case.