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DHAKA, Jan 14, 2025 (BSS) - The High Court (HC) today acquitted five people, including former state minister for home affairs Lutfozzaman Babar, in a case filed under special powers act over the 10-truck arms haul in Chattogram.

The other acquitted people are- Mohsin Talukder, AKM Enamul Haque, Rezzakul Haider Chowdhury and Nurul Amin.

The defence said as a result of today's judgment, now there is no legal bar to release Babar from jail.

A High Court division bench of Justice Mustafa Zaman Islam and Justice Nasreen Akter pronounced the judgment after holding hearing on appeals filed in the case.

The court also commuted convict Paresh Barua's life imprisonment to 14-year jail. It also decreased life imprisonment of convict Akbar Hossain, Liakat Hossain, Hafizur Rahman and Shahabuddin to 10-year jail respectively. It also acquitted Abdur Rahim, Matiur Rahman Nizami, Dwin Mohammad and Haji Abdus Sobhan as the four have already died.

The High Court on November 6, 2024, started its hearing on death references and appeals filed by the convicts.

Law enforcers and coast guard personnel seized 10 truckloads of arms, ammunition and explosives while those were being off-loaded at CUFL jetty area at the south-east bank of the river Karnaphuli under Karnaphuli Police Station on the night of April 1, 2004.

Two cases were lodged the next day with Karnaphuli Police Station, one under the Special Powers Act and the other under the Arms Act.

The trial court concerned on January 30, 2014, sentenced 14 people, including former industries minister and Jamaat-e-Islami ameer Matiur Rahman Nizami and former state minister for home affairs Lutfozzaman Babar, to death in the case lodged under the Special Powers Act.

The court also sentenced them to life term imprisonment in the case filed under the Arms Act.