Former state minister for home affairs Lutfozzaman Babar and six others have been acquitted from the much-talked 10-truck arms haul case.
The High Court bench of Justice Mustafa Zaman Islam and Justice Nasreen Akhter delivered the verdict on Wednesday.
It commuted the death sentence of six convicts to 10 years' imprisonment in the case.
The court also reduced the punishment for United Liberation Front of Assam’s (ULFA) military commander Paresh Baruah from death sentence to life imprisonment.
Earlier on December 11, Lutfozzaman Babar sought acquittal in the 10-truck arms haul case in Chattogram.
On January 30, 2014, Chattogram's Special Tribunal-1 sentenced 14 individuals to death in a smuggling case related to the 10-truck arms haul, including former industries minister and Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer late Matiur Rahman Nizami, Lutfozzaman Babar, and ULFA's military commander Paresh Baruah.
Other death row convicts are -- former NSI DG Maj Gen (Rtd) Rezzakul Haider Chowdhury, former NSI DG Brig Gen (Rtd) Abdur Rahim, former DGFI director (security) wing commander Shahabuddin Ahmed, former NSI deputy director Maj (Rtd) Liakat Hossain, former NSI field officer Akbar Hossain Khan, former managing director of Chittagong Urea Fertiliser Limited (CUFL) Mohsin Uddin Talukder, former CUFL general manager (administration) KM Enamul Haq, former acting industries secretary Nurul Amin, accused smuggler Hafizur Rahman, labour supplier Din Mohammad, and trawler owner Haji Abdur Sobhan.
On April 1, 2004, law enforcement agencies seized a large cache of weapons while they were being unloaded at the CUFL jetty.
bd-pratidin/GR
