Wrongfully jailed woman released after 3 years, only to die in road crash

A woman who was imprisoned for three years for a crime she did not commit was killed in a road accident in Chittagong within two weeks of release.

On June 28, Minu Akter died in a road crash on the city's Bayezid connecting road. Welfare organization Anjuman Mufidul Islam buried her body as unclaimed after being unable to identify it.

Officer-in-Charge of Bayezid Bostami police station Md Kamruzzaman said an unidentified body of a woman was recovered from the road and later buried by Anjuman Mufidul Islam.

Later, Minu’s brother Rubel identified the body as his sister's when a police team went to Sitakundu and showed him a photo.

On the night of the incident, police patrols removed her from the road twice as she was behaving abnormally, said the OC.

“After spending three years in jail on a life sentence for a murder she did not commit, Minu was finally freed on June 16 this year,” said Golam Mawla Murad, the lawyer who freed Minu.

On June 7, the High Court ordered to release Minu Akter, who had been serving a life term on behalf of real convict Kulsum Akter for money.

Besides, the court ordered Chittagong Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal 2 Special Public Prosecutor MA Naser, junior lawyers Nurul Anwar and Bibekananda Chowdhury, and clerk Showrabh to submit written explanations about their role in the fraudulent act within two weeks.

How Minu ended up in jail

 In October 2007, Kulsum was arrested in a case filed over a garment worker’s murder in 2006.

Two years later she was freed after being granted bail by a Chittagong court.

On November 30, 2017, the Chittagong Fourth Additional Metropolitan Sessions Court found Kulsum guilty and sentenced her to life in prison, also asking her to pay a fine of TK50,000.

On June 12, 2018, Minu, pretending to be Kulsum, surrendered to police and began spending time behind bars. According to case proceedings, she did it for money.

In 2019, advocate Iqbal Hossain filed a petition on the sentence passed by the lower court on behalf of Minu, pretending to be Kulsum.

The case document was sent to the High Court on June 12 the same year.

On March 18 this year, senior jail super of Chittagong Central Jail Md Safiqul Islam Khan noticed the fraud and brought the matter to Chittagong court’s notice.

Following the court’s order, Minu was brought before it on March 22.

In the court, Minu said: “Three years ago, a woman named Morzina, promising to give me some rice, sent me to jail and said she will bring me out after Ramadan.

“Now I want to be free," she said.

Later, a sub-document of the case was sent to the High Court and advocate Shishir Munir presented it.

The accused of the case Kulsum was a housewife living in Rahmatganj under Kotwali police station with her husband.

Minu used to live in a slum in the city with her three children before ending up in jail as Kulsum.