Dhaka, Jan 15: Bangladesh High Court has commuted the life sentence of ULFA leader Paresh Barua to 14 years and acquitted former BNP minister Lutfozzaman Babar in a 2004 case of attempted smuggling of weapons to the separatist outfit in northeast India.
On December 18 last year, the High Court commuted the death sentence of Baruah, military commander of the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA), a separatist group fighting for an independent Assam.
Baruah, who is believed to be living in China, was sentenced to death after a trial in absentia in 2014. His name also figures in the ‘most wanted’ list of India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA).
Ten truckloads of weapons were seized in April 2004 despite alleged efforts of certain “influential quarters” for its safe passage to ULFA hideouts in northeastern India through Chattogram, which was then spelled as ‘Chittagong’.
The seized weapons included over 27,000 grenades, 150 rocket launchers, over 11 lakh ammunition, 1,100 sub machine guns and 11.41 million bullets.
The two-member High Court bench reduced Baruah’s death sentence to life imprisonment, said a government attorney at the bench.
The Daily Star newspaper reported that the High Court on Tuesday acquitted former Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) state minister for home affairs Babar and five others, who were sentenced to life imprisonment.
The court also commuted the prison sentences of five more convicts, including Baruah. The bench also declared abetted (ended) the appeals of other three accused as they died.
Babar’s lawyer told The Daily Star that there is no legal bar for the former minister to get released from Keraniganj jail following the verdict.
Earlier on January 30, 2014, a special tribunal in the northeastern port city of Chattogram handed down the death penalty to 14 people, including two former ministers of the past BNP government, two ex-army generals and a top ULFA leader in the arms haul case.
Two cases – one under the Arms Act and another under the Special Powers Act – were filed at Karnaphuli police station a day after 10 truckloads of arms were seized at the Chittagong Urea Fertiliser Limited (CUFL) jetty on April 1, 2004. (PTI)
