Innocent Day Laborer Wrongfully Sentenced to Death After Drug Dealer Uses Stolen Identity in Coxs Bazar
Photo Collected
A Cox’s Bazar court is reviewing a case of mistaken identity after an innocent daily laborer was sentenced to death for a drug trafficking crime committed by a man who assumed his identity. Local police confirmed the details of the investigation on Tuesday, revealing that the true perpetrator remains at large.
The case originated on March 2, 2020, when the District Detective Branch (DB) arrested five individuals with 190,000 yaba pills in Cox’s Bazar. During the arrest, one suspect identified himself as Sona Mia, providing the name and address of an acquaintance. That individual later secured bail and absconded. In February of this year, the court sentenced all five defendants, including the fugitive identified as Sona Mia, to death.
Following the sentencing, the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB-15) arrested a man named Sona Mia in Ramu and remanded him to prison. The detained man maintained his innocence, asserting that he had never been arrested for narcotics offenses. Upon court instruction, the Cox’s Bazar Sadar Police launched an investigation, submitting a report on July 5 that exonerated the imprisoned man.
The investigation revealed that the individual arrested in 2020 was actually a man named Ramzan, who had used a forged birth registration certificate to impersonate Sona Mia. Police found that both men had previously resided in the same household in Cox’s Bazar’s Kutubdiapara, allowing Ramzan to obtain the documentation needed for the ruse.
Discrepancies in biometric and personal data further solidified the findings. The fake Sona Mia was 25 years old at the time of the initial arrest, stood 5 feet 3 inches tall, and had distinct scars on his cheeks and right arm. In contrast, the real Sona Mia is 34 years old, stands 5 feet 1 inch, and has different family ties and physical markings, including moles on his back and abdomen.
Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Cox’s Bazar Sadar Model Police Station, Sheikh Mohammad Ali, confirmed that the fingerprints and photographs of the two men do not match. He added that a co-defendant in the same case also confirmed that the currently imprisoned man was not involved in the original 2020 operation.
Legal experts have criticized the initial investigation led by former DB Inspector Manas Barua. Abdul Mannan, president of the Cox’s Bazar District Bar Association, described the incident as a failure of justice, noting that the investigator failed to verify the identity of the accused before filing the charge sheet.
The wife of the imprisoned man, Jannatul Ferdous, has appealed for her husband’s immediate release, stating that he is a law-abiding laborer suffering for the crimes of a man he once knew. While the police have submitted their findings to the court, a final judicial order for the man’s release remains pending.
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