Wrong Almas jailed for a year over a name mix-up, High Court orders immediate release

The High Court has ordered the immediate release of Md. Almas, an innocent man who was arrested because of a similar name and kept in jail for a year. Assistant Attorney General Mohiuddin Md. Hanif said a High Court bench of Justice J B M Hassan and Justice Aziz Ahmed Bhuiyan passed the order on Sunday (November 8).

An arms case was filed in Mirpur in 2002. Two years later, in 2004, a trial court sentenced the fugitive accused, Md. Almasch of Dohar in Dhaka, to 10 years in prison.

Twenty-one years after the verdict, in November 2025, police arrested Md. Almas. Until that point, everything seemed in order. But trouble began with the claim of the arrested Almas's relatives — they said this Almas is not that Almasch.

After the dispute, the matter reached the High Court last September. In a writ, the High Court issued a rule on September 6, ordering an inquiry to verify the identity and details of Almas, who was in jail, and of the convicted person.

The order asked the Chief Judicial Magistrate of Dhaka to conduct the inquiry through a Senior Judicial Magistrate under his supervision.

Following the order, a report was sent to the High Court on November 1. Senior Judicial Magistrate Mahfuzur Rahman of Dhaka conducted the inquiry.

The report said that Md. Almas, who has been in jail for a year after his arrest, and Md. Almasch, convicted in the Mirpur police station case, are two completely different people.

The real accused in the arms case, Md. Almasch, who was sentenced to 10 years, is now in Canada. Another man named Md. Almas has been in jail for a year after being arrested in that case. But he is not the person convicted in the case.

After receiving the inquiry report, the High Court bench on Sunday ordered the immediate release of the innocent Almas.

Under the order, Md. Almas, who spent a year in jail because of mistaken identity, must now be released immediately.