An HC bench of Justice Obaidul Hassan and Justice AKM Zahirul Huq passed the order when the boy (now 12 years) appeared before the court and sought bail.
Advocate Zaman Akter Bulbul stood for the petitioner while deputy attorney general Sarwar Hossain represented the state.
According to the case document, Nurul Islam, a resident of Hazipara in Ramu upazila of Cox’s Bazar district, filed a case against six people, including the boy, with the Chattogram Women and Child Repression Prevention Tribunal on September 27, 2018.
It said plaintiff Nurul Islam boarded a ship with the help of the accused who had allured him of a good job in Malaysia.
But he along with some others was forced to get down from the ship in a forest in Thailand where some middlemen demanded money for sending them to Malaysia.
The accused realised Tk 2 lakh from the plaintiff’s relatives and after providing Tk one lakh more the plaintiff managed to reach Malaysia.
During a crackdown in 2017, the plaintiff was caught by the Malaysian police and he returned home in 2018 after languishing in jail there for one year.
Advocate Zaman Akter Bulbul said it was shown in the case statement that the incident of trafficking took place in 2014 when the boy was seven years and but in the case which was filed in 2018 when his age was shown as 22 years.
The accused boy’s mother was also present at the court during hearing.