HC puts narcotic offender on probation for first time
The High Court on Sunday for the first time put a narcotic-related offender on probation instead of sending him to prison.
The court sent Moti Matabbar, 45, a first-time offender, on probation on three conditions that he would take care of his elderly mother, continue the education of his children, and not give his school-going daughter in early marriage.
The court asked the Dhaka district probation officer to observe the conduct of the offender for one and a half months and submit reports at intervals to the court as to whether he was meeting the requirements as the probation ordinance stipulated.
The High Court said that the offender would be sent to jail again if he breached any of the conditions.
The HC bench of Justice Zafar Ahmed issued the verdict after rejecting Moti’s application that sought a review of the lower court judgement that upheld his five-year jail term for possessing 401 pieces of Yaba tablets.
On November 22, 2015, a team of Rapid Action Battalion-10 arrested Moti with the contraband Yaba tablets in his possession at a hotel at Dayaganj in the capital and filed the case under the Narcotics Control Act the following day.
On January 8, 2017, a joint district and sessions judge court in Dhaka jailed Moti for five years and fined Tk 20,000 or an additional three-year jail term in default.
The additional district and sessions judge on May 11, 2017 upheld the jail term.
On July 1, 2017, Moti filed his petition with the High Court for reviewing the decision of the lower court upholding his jail term and during the course of hearing he prayed for probation.
Moti was granted bail by the High Court on July 9, 2017 as he had already served 20 months in jail in connection with the case.
The High Court issued the historic judgement after hearing and examining a report from the probation officer, Azizur Rahman Masud, who had monitored the conduct of the offender, hailing from a Keraniganj village in Dhaka, for two months, under an HC instruction.
Supreme Court lawyer Shishir Manir, who appeared for Moti, told reporters that he was happy to see the use of the forgotten Probation Ordinance 1960.
Earlier, on March 9, 2006, another HC bench, led by Justice Muhammad Imman Ali, directed the Dhaka chief metropolitan magistrate court to release a first-time offender named Abdul Khaleque, an employee of the then Dhaka City Corporation, on probation for two years and ordered him to pay Tk 1,000 to the victim in compensation in a case.
The additional metropolitan sessions judge of Dhaka on August 30, 1999 had upheld the six-month jail awarded to Khaleque by a Dhaka metropolitan magistrate court on September 30, 1995 for causing injuries in the head of Hazera Begum, the offender’s neighbor and colleague, over an altercation.
The High Court in that verdict observed that the courts having regard to the circumstances, including the nature of the offence and the character of the offender, if it was expedient to do so, the court may instead of sentencing the person at once, make a probation order, that is to say an order requiring him or her to be under the supervision of a probation officer for such period, not being less than one year or more than three years, as may be specified in the order.
News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net
