Life sentence by proxy: Lawyer of real convict remanded

A Dhaka court on Friday placed Sharif Shahriar Siraj, the lawyer of a convicted criminal who arranged for a cousin to serve the life sentence awarded to him in a murder case, in remand for one day. He will be interrogated in relation to a case filed at the Kotwali Police Station after the elaborate ruse came to light.

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Arfatul Rakib issued the remand order turning down the lawyer's bail plea, said Sub-inspector (SI) Mahmudur Rahman, General Registration Branch Officer of Kotwali Police Station. 

Investigating Officer Abu Saeed Chowdhury, sub-inspector (unarmed) of Kotwali police station, produced the lawyer in court and sought a seven-day remand.

On Thursday, police arrested Sharif Shahriar Siraj from Roy Saheb Bazar area of Old Dhaka.

On Wednesday, the court placed Md Hossain, the cousin who assumed convict Boro Sohag's identity and surrendered himself to serve the life sentence handed down to Sohag in absentia, on a five-day remand.

Sohag and Hossain were presented in Speedy Tribunal-4 and Judge Jasmine Ara Begum ordered the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) of Dhaka to take legal actions against convict Sohag, Hossain and his counsel Sharif Shahriar Siraji and Ibrahim Hossain for the forgery.

Later, a case was filed against them in Kotwali Police Station in this regard.

Members of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) arrested the absconding convict Sohag alias Boro Sohag from the capital on 20 January, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in December, 2017.

Sohag shot a man named Humayun Kabir alias Titu in the Kodomtoli area of the city in November 2010 and got arrested in December of the same year. Four people including Sohag were made accused in the murder case. He secured bail in 2014, and soon after he jumped bail and has evaded law enforcement ever since. Eventually a Dhaka court sentenced him to life imprisonment in absentia.

Sohag has now confessed that he allured his 'drug addict' cousin Md Hossain to assume his identity and surrender before the court saying he would provide Tk 5,000 every month for serving his sentence. And the court ordered to send Hossain to jail, turning down the bail plea in 2018.

However, the court came to know about the forgery in 2021 following the report of a journalist about a 'Fake Sohag' in jail which was confirmed in a police report. The court later issued a warrant against Sohag.