Former State Minister for Home Affairs Lutfozzaman Babar has been acquitted in the 10-truck arms smuggling case, while ULFA’s military commander Paresh Barua’s death sentence has been commuted to life imprisonment. The High Court bench, comprising Justice Mostafa Zaman Islam and Justice Nasreen Akhter, delivered the verdict on Wednesday, December 18.

The hearing on death reference and appeals related to the case began on November 6, with senior lawyer S.M. Shahjahan and advocate Shishir Monir representing Babar.

The case originated from the seizure of a large shipment of arms and ammunition on April 1, 2004, from the CUFL jetty in Chattogram. Two cases were filed under the Arms Act and the Special Powers Act. In 2014, the Chattogram Metropolitan Sessions Judge’s Court and Special Tribunal-1 sentenced 14 individuals, including former Industries Minister and Jamaat-e-Islami leader Motiur Rahman Nizami (later executed in another case), Lutfozzaman Babar, and Paresh Barua, to death in the arms smuggling case. The same individuals received life imprisonment in the related arms case.

Following the trial court's decision, the death reference case was registered with the High Court on February 6, 2014, while the convicted individuals filed separate appeals against their sentences the same year.