A man in Natore’s Singra Upazila is destitute now after the proceedings of a case for 17 years in which he was falsely implicated.
Bablu Sheikh was falsely accused in a land dispute 17 years ago, and the tea-stall owner is under Tk 300,000 debt after paying for lawyers and necessary fees of the case.
Although the court has acquitted him, he and his wife Minu Begum are knee-deep in debt. The couple pays Tk 10,000 per months in instalments for the loans they had taken out to fight the case.
After the harrowing and expensive experience at the court, Bablu is reluctant to move for compensation, wanting to avoid more fees.
Father of three daughters, and a son, he had to marry off the daughters young as they couldn’t afford their education or expenses.
Their son Tamim, a fourth-grader helps out his father at the tea-stall for which they pay Tk 600 in rent. Minu meanwhile, works as labour as well as a household help to keep the family running.
“I lost everything after running from lawyer to lawyer for 17 years. I just want to be free of the case and live out my days in peace,” Bablu told Bangla Tribune.
“Getting compensation will make paying-off the loans easier but I don’t want to go to the courts for that,” he added.
Relating his woes of relatives becoming distant after tired of helping out, he said that his goal is now to ensure his son’s education, something he couldn’t do for his daughters. He demanded that those who falsely implicated him be brought to book.
Minu says that she had to struggle since her husband was arrested in 2002 when their eldest daughter Laboni was in the third grade.
She said that her second daughter Topi wasn’t in school and another daughter Lucky was 21 days old.
“Laboni’s education stopped in the fifth grade,” she said and added that Topi’s stopped in when she was in the seventh grade.
She said that they had to make ends meet as Bablu couldn’t work and eventually married off their daughters.
The couple is now struggling to pay off the debts and fear that Tamim’s education must be stopped too.
Although reluctant to go to court for compensation, they said that they will be grateful for steps from the government and administration.
According to the documents Bablu spent 10 days in jail and 17 years paying for the trial of a case due to a gaffe on the two investigating officers’ part.
The court that acquitted him on Thursday (Oct 18) also ordered the police authorities to take steps against the two officers.
District Superintendent of police Liton Shaha, Magistrate Saiduzzaman and district bar President Shirajul Islam said that they are yet to receive the copy of the verdict.