Dhaka: The Bangladesh High Court has reduced the life imprisonment sentence of Paresh Baruah, a leader of the separatist United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA), to 14 years.
The ruling came in a case under the country’s Arms Act, while several other individuals, including Bangladeshis, were acquitted.
On Wednesday, the High Court’s two-judge bench commuted the life sentence of Paresh Baruah and four other Bangladeshis involved in the case, according to an official from the Attorney General’s Bureau.
Baruah, the military commander of the ULFA who is currently absconding, was previously convicted in 2014 along with several Bangladeshi nationals for attempting to smuggle 10 truckloads of weapons to ULFA hideouts in Assam.
The weapons, which were seized in April 2004, included over 27,000 grenades, 150 rocket launchers, over 11 lakh rounds of ammunition, and over 1,000 submachine guns.
The High Court had previously commuted Baruah’s death sentence on December 18 last year.
Initially sentenced to death in absentia in 2014, Baruah is believed to be residing in China and is on India’s National Investigation Agency’s (NIA) most-wanted list.
In the arms haul case, former junior home minister Lutfuzzaman Babar, ex-forces intelligence chief Major General Rezzakul Haider Chowdhury, former fertilizer plant officials, and others were sentenced to death.
The court, however, ruled that there was insufficient evidence to prove that the accused had actual control or possession of the firearms, leading to a reduction in sentences.
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Motiur Rahman Nizami, the former leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami party and industries minister during Bangladesh’s past BNP-led government, was also sentenced to death in the case.
However, he was executed in 2016 for crimes committed during the 1971 Liberation War.
The arms haul case traces back to April 1, 2004, when 10 truckloads of weapons were seized at the Chittagong Urea Fertilizer Limited (CUFL) jetty.
Two separate cases were filed: one under the Arms Act and another under the Special Powers Act.
