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The former state minister for home affairs was arrested in 2007 on charges of possessing an unlicensed revolver at his home
Published : 19 Mar 2025, 01:55 PM
The High Court has acquitted former state minister for home affairs Lutfozzaman Babar in an arms case, overturning a 17-year prison sentence handed down by a trial court.
The bench of Justice Mustafa Zaman Islam and Justice Nasreen Akter delivered the verdict on Wednesday following Babar’s appeal.
On Oct 30, 2007, Dhaka Metropolitan Special Tribunal-9 jailed Babar for 17 years for possessing an unlicensed revolver at his home.
The court issued the sentence five months after Babar was arrested during the state of emergency at the time.
Lawyer Md Shishir Manir represented Babar at the hearing on Wednesday.
He said: “The joint forces deliberately filed the case seven days after arresting [Babar]. The documents stated that the weapons were recovered from a darkish red bag, but it was not in the list of confiscated items.”
"The GD for which he had been arrested was not presented in the trial court though an application was submitted."
Shishir said the defendant had repeatedly asked for the CCTV camera footage of the house from the day of the arrest to be presented in court, but the request was turned down.
“Basically, several members of the joint forces entered the home with that darkish red bag. Although the guard and welder mechanic were impartial witnesses, they mentioned in their testimonies that nothing was seized in front of them as they only had to sign.”
According to the case documents, the joint forces detained Babar from his home on May 27, 2007 before showing him arrested in relation to a general diary entry with the Gulshan police.
On Jun 3, Sub-Inspector Helal Uddin filed a case against Babar with Gulshan police under the Arms Act.
On the night of Babar’s arrest, the joint forces searched his home around 9:30pm and confiscated four firearms, including a revolver, pistol, rifle and a shotgun, according to the case dossier.
Asked to show licences, Babar’s wife was able to produce only three. She failed to present a licence for the revolver.
The investigation officer of the case submitted a charge sheet in court on Jun 23. In October that year, the tribunal sentenced Babar to 10 years in prison under Section 19(a) of the Arms Act and another seven years under Section 19(f).
On Jan 16 this year, Babar, who was a state minister under the BNP-Jamaat alliance government, was released from jail after serving his term.
Babar was sentenced in several other cases as well during the two-year state of emergency and the 15-year-rule of the Awami League.
The court sentenced him to death in two of those cases and life in prison in another.
Following the fall of the Awami League regime on Aug 5 in the face of a mass uprising, Babar was cleared of the charges following separate appeals.
On Oct 23, the court scrapped an eight-year prison sentence in connection with a graft case against Babar before acquitting him in the Aug 21 grenade attack case, along with all the others accused.
Babar was also sentenced to death in the 10-truck weapons smuggling case under the Special Powers Act, and life imprisonment under the separate Arms Act.
The High Court acquitted Babar in the cases on Dec 18 and Jan 14, paving the way for his release.
Babar served as Netrokona-4 MP twice, from 1991-1996 and 2001-2006.
