Lutfozzaman Babar, the former state minister for home affairs, is poised to walk free after 17 years of imprisonment, as all charges against him have been dropped.
According to the Department of Prisons, he will be released from Keraniganj Central Jail on Thursday (16 January) afternoon.
On Tuesday (14 January), Babar was acquitted of life imprisonment in one of the separate cases under the Arms Act concerning the infamous 10-truck arms smuggling incident in Chattogram.
A High Court bench, comprising Justice Mostafa Zaman Islam and Justice Nasreen Akhtar, delivered the verdict, exonerating him from all charges, thereby removing the last obstacle to his release.
News of Babar’s impending release has drawn crowds of supporters and family members from his locality to Dhaka.
They have gathered outside the prison, eagerly awaiting his return. Preparations have been made to welcome him at the prison gates.
Babar was detained on 28 May 2007 and subsequently convicted in several cases, including two that carried death sentences and one life sentence.
However, following the ousting of the Awami League government on 5 August last year, appeals in these cases led to his successive acquittals.
Most recently, he was acquitted on 23 October in a corruption case, where he had been sentenced to eight years, and on 1 December in the 21 August grenade attack case, which had also carried a death sentence.
