Convict freed thru' verdict forgery

A man convicted for drug trading last month has been released from detention through forgery of the verdict documents.
A peskar (court official) forged the judgement for the convict, Mohammad Arif of Rajshahi city, who was arrested in 2008 with three kilograms of marijuana.
Arif was sentenced on November 28 this year to one year's rigorous imprisonment and fined Tk 2,000, in default, to serve two more months.
A fresh arrest warrant has been issued against the fugitive convict.
Police freed Arif from the custody of a metropolitan magistrate's court on November 28 when the peskar Sohel Rana sent a forged release order to them.
Sohel Rana was instead supposed to send the conviction warrant against Arif, said Rabindranath Biswas, inspector of the court police custody.
The peskar has been suspended and served a show cause notice to explain his role in this connection within 10 days.
The forgery came to light on November 29 when Arif's lawyer Habibur Rahman did not find him in custody and enquired about his whereabouts.
Habibur told The Daily Star that Sohel Rana might have been bribed by Arif.
Contacted, Sohel Rana admitted sending a false release order to police and said he did it "by mistake".