She was put in jail for sharing first name, husband’s name with real convict. Court sets her free after a year

A Chattogram court has ordered the release of a woman who was behind bars for 16 months due to confusion over names.

Chattogram's Fifth Additional Metropolitan Sessions Acting Judge Shariful Alam Bhuiyan issued the release order of the woman, Hasina Begum, on Tuesday.

Advocate Golam Maula Murad, Hasina’s lawyer, told bdnews24.com that she was released after suffering the penalties of another individual after going through a report from the police and the prison.

Omar Fuad, the bench assistant of the court, said the order also asks the police to bring in the real culprit.

In 2019, the police arrested Hasina Begum in place of Hasina Akter, charged with possession of yaba tablets. Their husbands share the same name, Hamid Hossain.

Later reports submitted by the police and another assessing the registrar of the Chattogram Central Jail stated that the one serving time was ‘not the real culprit’.

In jail since December 2019, Hasina Begum is the wife of Hamid Hossain from the house of Ismail Haji in Ward no. 7 of Teknaf Municipality. She used to run a betel leaf shop in Teknaf.

However, Hasina Akter, charged in a Narcotics Control Act case, actually lives in the same ward’s house of Chowdhury, with her husband bearing the same name as Begum’s.

Akter and her husband were arrested with 2,000 yaba pills from the Moijjar Tek area of the city in February 2017.

Since getting bail later in November that year, they have been on the run.

The Fifth Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge’s court sentenced the two to five years in prison in a case started by the police for fleeing justice. Teknaf police then captured Begum on Dec 16, 2019 and sent her to prison.

Begum’s husband Hamid, a labour, left the area following her arrest. The couple’s two daughters stay with their maternal grandmother while their elder son, Shamim Newaz, is working at a residence in Chattogram city.

Newaz brought the issue of Begum serving the sentence of another to the attention of Advocate Murad.