Yaba Recovery: Arrestee’s bail triggers mixed reaction

Younus Miah Prokash Liton, who was arrested in a case filed for smuggling 38,887 yaba tablets to Saudi Arabia in October 2020, got ad-interim bail from a Dhaka court yesterday.

The bail order has triggered a mixed reaction among lawyers and litigants, court sources said.

Liton was arrested on April 24 from Matuail Maternity in Kadamtoli. The next day, he gave confessional statements before a Dhaka magistrate.

In the forwarding report submitted on April 25, Masudur Rahman, also an inspector at Department of Narcotics Control, mentioned Md Asadullah, another accused in the case, told the court that Liton and Hasmat Ali Prince kept those yaba in three cartons for sending to Saudi Arabia where expatriate Rafiqul Islam will receive those.

Moreover, Liton confessed to the magistrate that he along with Prince, Rafiq and Md Sharif had been running yaba business for a long time, said the report.

Judge Md Asaduzzaman of the Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court granted Liton ad-interim bail upon a bond of Tk 20,000 with two guarantors even though his bail petitions were repeatedly rejected by the same court earlier.

In yesterday's order, the judge said Liton was not accused in the first information report. He was arrested on the basis of confessional statement of another Md Asadullah. Moreover, several other accused, including two FIR-named accused, received bail from different courts. So, his bail petition was granted.

DNC Prosecutor Abdul Karim Akash said he raised objections against the bail petition, but the court granted bail applying its "discretionary jurisdiction".

A lawyer, who was conducting the case from the very beginning, said a bail petition was rejected by the High Court last month considering the depth of offences.

Meantime, the investigator on August 8 pressed charges against six people, including Liton, in the case filed with Airport Police Station over the recovery.

He also dropped names of eight people, including two FIR-named accused, from the charges as their involvement with the recovery was not proved.

The Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court of Dhaka that day asked the investigator to appear before it with the case dockets on September 28 to explain why he dropped the names.

On October 16, 2020, DNC recovered the yaba pills at Dhaka airport and arrested Abu Shamim and Firoz Ahmed. Later, a case was filed under the Narcotics Control Act.