'Ashamed, repentant for drug dealing'

A man stands on the court premises holding a placate inscribed ‘I am sorry, ashamed, repentant and begging pardon for peddling narcotics’, ‘Narcotic is the enemy of the country and the people, avoid drug’.

Md Abdullah, 50, from Rautnagar at Ranishangkoil in Thakurgaon, has been indicted in a drug peddling case. But he is not serving in jail for this offence.

Instead, he is ordered to run an anti-narcotics campaign on the court premises for 10 days from 12:00pm to 1:00pm. Thakurgaon district and session court judge Gazi Delwar Hossain delivered the verdict on Wednesday.

It is known that Md Abdullah was arrested in 2015 in a narcotics case filed against him in Ranishangkoil police station.

Police sub-inspector Aktharul Islam submitted the probe report to the court on 28 February in 2017. As the allegation brought against him was proved, the court sentenced him to one year imprisonment and fined him Tk 3,000.

Later, the defendant's lawyer Zakir Hossain appealed to the court to take a decision considering the humanitarian grounds of the accused.

In response to the appeal, the judge revised the punishment and ordered the accused to carry out an anti-drug campaign for 10 working days from 12:00pm to 1:00pm on the court premises. That verdict has been effective from today, Sunday.

Lawyer Zakir Hossain told Prothom Alo that Abdullah, father of two daughters, is only the bread earner of his family. If he is sent to jail, his daughters’ lives could be jeopardised. Apart from this, he pledged to lead an honest life refraining from the drug related business.

This verdict has granted the accused a scope to return to normal life, the lawyer added.