An innocent Bangladeshi citizen, Badal Farazi (28), who languished in an Indian jail and lost his 10 years of valuable life, came back to Dhaka Thursday.
He landed in Dhaka Friday afternoon and was taken to Dhaka central jail from the airport.
Confirming his repatriation, Addidtional Deputy Inspector General Mohammad Moniruzzaman said, “Under the transfer of sentenced person agreement between India and Bangladesh, Badal Farazi who was convicted in a murder case, was brought back. He will be kept in Keraniganj central jail and he will stay there till his sentence is finished.”
The trip to see the famous Tajmahal ended with Badal spending ten years in a foreign prison on a false charge.
Hailing from Mongla port area, Badal Farazi, went to India on Jul 13, 2008, via the Benapole border with a valid passport and visa and, soon after entering Haridaspur, 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.
In Dec 2012, Bangladesh High Commission, elaborating the case of mistaken identity, gave a letter to the Indian foreign ministry, requesting the release of the young man.
The letter stated that Badal had entered India after the murder was committed.
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.