Cox's Bazar, Aug 14 (V7N)- Muhammad Yasin Prakash Sonamiya, who was arrested under another person's identity and later sentenced to death in a controversial Yaba case in Cox's Bazar, is finally being released on bail.
He is scheduled to be released from Cox's Bazar District Jail on Friday (August 14). He had been in custody since being arrested by the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) on June 23.
His lawyer, Abdul Mannan, said a review of court documents confirmed that the 'Sona Mia' arrested with Yaba in 2020 and Sonamiya, who was later detained and sentenced to death, are two different people.
Following Sonamiya's application for release, Cox's Bazar District and Sessions Judge Muhammad Abdur Rahim reviewed various reports and granted him bail with four conditions.
The conditions include depositing his National Identity Card (NID) with the police station, not changing his address, appearing before the court on time and informing law enforcement authorities of his whereabouts.
According to case records, five people, including Ramzan Ali, were arrested during a DB police operation in 2020 with 190,000 Yaba tablets. 'Sona Mia' was named as the second accused in the case based on a photocopy of a birth certificate recovered during the operation.
However, in the charge sheet submitted in September 2020, the investigating officer, then DB Police Inspector Manas Barua, stated that the correct name and address of the second accused, Sona Mia, could not be verified.
Later, on June 13, 2022, Sona Mia was granted bail by the Cox's Bazar District Judge's Court and subsequently went into hiding. In February 2026, the court sentenced five accused, including Sona Mia, to death in the case.
Following the verdict, RAB-15 arrested Sonamiya on June 23 on the basis of an arrest warrant and sent him to jail.
However, two to three days after entering prison, Sonamiya appealed to the jail superintendent, claiming that he was not an accused in the case.
The matter was subsequently brought to the attention of the court. Cox's Bazar Sadar Police Station was ordered to investigate and submit a report.
In its report submitted to the court on July 2, police confirmed that the person arrested with Yaba in 2020 and later granted bail as Sona Mia was not the same person as Sonamiya, who was arrested after the death sentence.
The investigation further revealed that the real name of the person arrested with the Yaba in 2020 was Ramzan Ali.
As a result, Sonamiya had been mistakenly implicated in the case and sentenced to death after being arrested under another person's identity.
END/SMA/AJ
