The High Court on Thursday acquitted Regent Group chairman Mohammad Shahed alias Shahed Karim in an arms case in which he got life-term imprisonment by the trial court.
The HC bench of Justice Ashish Ranjan Das and Justice Md Riaz Uddin Khan delivered the verdict after hearing his appeal petition filed against the court verdict.
Lawyers SM Shahjahan and Shah Monjurul Hoque appeared in the court hearing on behalf of Mr Karim, while deputy attorney general Sarwar Hossain Bappi represented the state.
Mr Hoque said the HC acquitted his client as the state could not prove the allegation brought against him of possessing illegal arms and bullets.
However, Mr Shahed cannot be released from jail following the HC judgement as he is arrested in other cases, he added.
A special tribunal in Dhaka on 28 September 2020 sentenced Mr Shahed to life-term imprisonment in the arms case.
He was also given seven years' imprisonment for possessing bullets under another section of the Firearms Act, but the punishment would be run simultaneously, said the court.
RAB officials arrested Mr Shahed from the border area of Debhata upazila in Satkhira on 15 July 2020 as he was trying to leave the country on a boat.
He was held on remand in a case filed over issuing fake Covid-19 test results and charging patients unfairly for testing and treatment.
On 18 July 2020, DB police found the convict's private car outside a house in Uttara Sector-11 and seized a pistol with a round of bullet.
Later, a case under the Arms Act was filed against him with Uttara West police station.
DB inspector Md Sairul Islam on July 30 submitted a charge sheet to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court in Dhaka in the case.
The Special Tribunal-01 of Dhaka framed charges against Mr Shahed on 27 August 2020 in the case.
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