A proposal will be submitted soon to the home ministry, requesting an initiative to release the convicts serving short-term imprisonment in drug cases.
The Department of Narcotics Control (DNC) will submit the proposal for release of such the convicts on condition that they will do good activities.
As there is a system of freeing convicts on probation, the DNC has taken a decision to submit a proposal, said DNC sources.
In this system, courts free convicts on some conditions and probation officers of the Department of Social Services keep them under observation.
If the freed convicts violate the conditions, they are arrested again and detained in jail.
When contacted, Ahsanur Rahman, deputy director (operations) of the DNC, confirmed the news.
“The DNC has decided to give a proposal to the Home Ministry’s Security Services Division so that it takes initiatives to free such the convicts,” he said.
He further said they have come up with the decision as some courts have already released a number of convicts in drug cases from different jails, including Barguna Jail.
Home ministry sources said a DNC officer brought out the matter of releasing short-term imprisonment convicts in drug cases on the condition of good work at a coordinating meeting at Security Services Division in December last year.
The DNC officer then said in the meeting that some convicts in drug cases were released from Barguna Jail on the condition of good activities like reading books, tree plantations and social and religious work.
The DNC officer in the meeting said that if the matter of releasing is initiated, the number of prisoners in the jails will gradually decrease.
Sources said different courts released some young prisoners from jails on the condition of good work.
On October 2 last year, a Jashore court freed two teens — Shihab, 17, and Tushar, 17. They were freed on the conditions that they will join Rover Scout, be members of blood donation groups and do some other volunteer activities.
On November 15, 2022, Rajshahi Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal-2 released 26 teenagers on the good work condition.
The teenagers were convicted in different cases, including drugs. If the court is satisfied with their activities, they may be acquitted from the case permanently.
In June last year, a Barishal court freed Mehedi Amin Khan Babu on a condition that he will nurse his ill mother. Babu was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment in a drug case.
When contacted, Shyamal Sen Gupta, probation officer at Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court) in Barishal, told the Daily Sun that the CMM Court freed over 750 convicts, who were sentenced to short-term imprisonment, on various conditions over the last few years.
