The High Court has ordered a judicial inquiry into the incarceration of one Manik Hawlader instead of the real convict Manik Mia in a drugs case.

Shariatpur’s chief judicial magistrate has ordered to finish the investigation within 30 working days and submission of the report to the Supreme Court Registrar General.

Justice JBM Hassan and Justice Md Khairul Alam’s bench issued the order on Monday after hearing a writ petition filed by Hawlader’s wife Salma Begum.

The court has ordered that the real criminal be identified. Sirajganj Special Tribunal-1 and the district’s police chief have been ordered to assist in the investigation.

April 12 has been set as the next hearing date.

In an interim rule, the court asked the authorities concerned to explain why the arrest and incarceration of Hawlader should not be declared illegal. Advocate Partha Sarathi represented Hawlader in the court while Deputy Attorney General Tushar Kanti Roy stood for the state.

Advocate Sarathi said four men were accused in a case filed over the seizure of 668 bottles of phensedyl from a vehicle on June 2, 2009, at Sirajganj’s Salanga Police Station. One of the accused, Manik Mia, was arrested the next day.

Mia secured bail from the High Court that year. In the bail documents, he named Manik Hawlader’s parents Nazrul Islam and Rejia Begum as his parents. He mentioned Hawlader’s address of Alam Chan Bepari Kandi village under Sakhipur union of Ward 9 of Shariatpur as his own.

Mia went into hiding after securing bail.

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A Sirajganj court on Feb 11, 2019, jailed Mia and three others for four years in the case.

The fraud came to light after Bhedorganj police arrested Hawlader on November 28 last year.

It has been learned that Mia is the son of Ibrahim Mridha and Lutfa Begum of Malotkandi village under Sakhipur union of Bhedorganj. Both the victim and the convict hail from the same Sakhipur union but their villages are different.

Hawlader’s wife moved the High Court on March 2 demanding her husband’s release and damages. She submitted a letter from Sakhipur union chairman detailing the different identities of Mia and Hawlader.

It mentions Ibrahim Mridha as the father of the convict.