An alleged terrorist convicted by the Indian court, Abdur Rauf Daud Merchant, was released from Dhaka Central Jail on Sunday as his prison term ended, said jail authorities. Senior Jail Superintendent of Dhaka Central Jail, Jahangir Kabir, confirmed the release of Daud Merchant, an alleged aide of Dubai-based Indian mafia don Daud Ibrahim, to The Independent yesterday. “The top Indian terrorist was released around 4.30pm on Sunday and he walked out of the jail alone as no one came to receive him,” he said. When asked about the release, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal did not clarify whether he was handed over to the Indian authorities, where he is to face trial and conviction.
“He (Merchant) has been released. His prison term for illegal trespassing into Bangladesh ended some time ago,” the minister said.
Abdur Rauf Daud Merchant was arrested in Brahmanbaria in November 2009 for illegal trespassing into the country and possessing a fake Bangladeshi passport. He was then sentenced by a court and kept at the Kashimpur jail in Gazipur. He was kept at the Dhaka Central Jail since November 2014, when he was re-arrested under section 54 of the penal code, only four days after being released on bail.
Merchant was sentenced to life imprisonment in India in April 2002 for shooting dead music baron Gulshan Kumar in Mumbai on August 12, 1997.  He illegally entered Bangladesh after being released on parole in April 2009 to visit his sick mother. Since 2013, the Indian government had been pressing Bangladesh to fast-track his extradition. Anup Chetia, leader of the Indian separatist group Ulfa, was handed over to the Indian authorities on November 11 last year. India then returned Nur Hossain, the prime suspect in the Narayanganj seven-murder case.