The High Court (HC) has dismissed a writ petition seeking the release of an innocent Bangladeshi citizen, Badal Farazi, 28, who was a victim of miscarriage of justice in India.
A HC bench of Justice JBM Hasan and Justice Khairul Alam Wednesday issued the order after taking the hearing on the petition on Tuesday.
Barristers, Humayun Kabir Pallab and Kawser filed the petition before the HC on Jul 8.
After the hearing, Pallab said, the only way he could be released by filing a clemency petition.
“The court in its order expressed satisfaction over the measures taken by the government to bring him back. It also asked the relevant authorities to examine if there is any other legal way to release him,” Pallab said.
Badal can file a clemency petition to the government of Bangladesh or India to get a pardon, he said adding, “It is the only way.”
Hailing from Mongla port area, Badal Farazi, went to India on Jul 13, 2008, via the Benapole border with a valid passport and visa. Soon after entering Haridaspur, he was arrested by the Indian border force, BSF, over a murder on the Indian side.
Indian police had been searching for a person called Badal Singh over the killing of a senior citizen at the Amar Colony in Delhi on May 6, 2008.
Badal, whose academic life ended after class eight, did not have enough English or Hindi to make the BSF understand that he was the wrong person.
In 2015, Badal was handed life sentence by a Delhi court. The hapless man, with the help from the Bangladesh High Commission, challenged the verdict at the Supreme Court, which dismissed the case.
Later, an Indian social worker, Rahul Kapoor began a crusade to have Badal released. Rahul, a Phd student at Delhi University, met Badal when he went to Tihar jail to work for inmates’ rehabilitation.