Shawdesh desk:

The High Court on Tuesday acquitted former state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar and four others in the remaining case linked to the 2004 Chattogram 10-truck arms haul, paving the way for Babar’s release as he is not implicated in any other case.

The bench of Justice Mustafa Zaman Islam and Justice Nasreen Akter also commuted the life sentences of five convicts, including United Liberation Front of Asom leader Paresh Barua, to varying prison terms.

However, the court dismissed appeals for four other convicts who died in custody.

On January 30, 2014, the Chattogram Metropolitan Special Tribunal-1 sentenced 14 individuals to death under the Special Powers Act 1974 for smuggling 10 truckloads of weapons.

The same tribunal also handed down death sentences to the accused in a separate arms case linked to the haul.

On December 18, 2024, the High Court acquitted Babar and five others in one of the two cases, while commuting Paresh Barua’s death sentence to life imprisonment. The court also reduced the sentences of six other convicts to 10 years’ imprisonment.

This latest acquittal closes the remaining case in the decade-long legal proceedings over the 10-truck arms haul, a case that exposed the smuggling of a massive cache of arms and ammunition intended for insurgent groups.

Babar’s lawyer, Mohammad Shishir Manir, confirmed that his client would be released soon as the High would issue short order of his acquittal as he faces no other charges.