The final verdict on an alleged trespassing into Indian territory by former Bangladesh minister and leader of the Opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), Salahuddin Ahmed will be delivered on October 15.
The verdict will be delivered by the court of judicial magistrate (first class) more than three years after his arrest on May 12, 2015.
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Sources said though the court had listed Friday (September 28) as the day for delivering the verdict, but the matter was deferred to October 15. Sources said that the judge was on leave on Friday.
The final judgment of the case was first fixed on August 13, but it was deferred to September 28. It was on May 11, 2015, that the BNP leader (Salahuddin Ahmed) was spotted in Golf Link area here around 5.30 am.
Police said that people informed them that an individual was “suspiciously and aimlessly” moving in the area.
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That time, Ahmed was first taken to the Meghalaya Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (MIMHANS), Lawmali here after the Meghalaya police found him not speaking comprehensibly, when they questioned him.
But at MIMHANS, Ahmed was found to be mentally sound, and referred him to Shillong Civil Hospital for treatment.
Ahmed was allegedly kidnapped in Bangladesh on March 10, 2015. Ahmed was one among the numerous BNP officials to have disappeared during the unrest in Bangladesh that year (2015).
He claimed that he was kidnapped in Bangladesh, but did not know about how he landed in India (Shillong) (on May 11, 2015). How Ahmed went missing, and who had brought him to Shillong remains a mystery.
On May 12, 2015, Ahmed was arrested by the Meghalaya police for not having valid documents.
The court has framed the charges against Ahmed under Section 14 of the Foreigners Act, 1946, for surfacing in India (Shillong) without valid documents.
The former Bangladesh parliamentarian is out on bail, but he faced trials in a lower court here for trespassing into Indian territory.
He was granted bail on June 5, 2015 with certain conditions that he has to appear before the court or superintendent of police, should not abscond or leave the jurisdiction of the court and furnish his complete residential address to the superintendent of police.
The court had recorded Ahmed’s statement on August 29, 2016. But Ahmed requested the court to also allow him to present a list of witnesses so that their statements could be recorded.
On October 27, 2016, Salahuddin Ahmed, submitted a list of witnesses before the court. The statements of 10 witnesses from the prosecution side were recorded by the court during the trials.
Ahmed had served as communications minister in the BNP government led by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia from 2001 to 2006.
On June 10, 2015, Ahmed had told journalists in Shillong that he wished to go back to Bangladesh, though he was facing charges there.
“I always want to go back, I have my family and children. Bangladesh is my country but there are lots of things going on in my country,” he had said.