Chief Judicial Magistrate Sohel Rana passed the order after Advocate M Sanaullah, district project officer of Bangladesh Legal and Services Trust (BLAST), prayed for his bail.

Matin, a day-labourer of Mochagorah village in Muradnagar, was arrested on Tuesday night and subsequently sent to jail in a case filed for not paying outstanding electricity bill although there is no electricity in his house.

Meanwhile, Cumilla Palli Bidyut Samity-1 formed a two-member committee to investigate the incident. The committee was asked to submit its report within 48 hours.

Talking to reporters after securing the bail, Matin said, “We’re poor people. We light kerosene lamps. We never lit electric lamps. We didn’t get power connections although we bribed Azad Miah and Badshah.”

He also demanded trial of those harassed him.

Palli Bidyut Debidwar zonal office deputy general manager and chief of the probe committee Mrinal Kanti Chowdhury said the metre against the name of Abdul Matin was instated at the house of Safiqul Islam, quarter km away from that of Matin. “However, Safiqul neither informed the office of it nor paid the bill. Abdul Matin also did not pay heed to this even after receiving the notice as he has no connection.”

Locals said 256 families of Dakkhinpara of Mochagorah village applied for electricity connections four years ago. 

They alleged that brokers Abdul Kalam Azad and Abul Bashar took Tk 10,000-15,000 from each family. Authorities also approved the application of Matin, son of late Ahid Ali.

However, the connection was given to Safiqul replacing Matin’s photograph with that of Safiqul on the application form as Matin paid only Tk 4,000 and failed to pay the rest.

Safiqul did not pay the electricity bill of Tk 7,400 for 17 months. Later, a case was filed in this regard and police arrested Matin on Tuesday night.