A woman from Teknaf, Monira Begum, went to jail in place of Senuwara Begum, who was charged with a connection to a narcotics case. Senuwara Begum paid her to do jail time in place of her. When Monira Begum’s fingerprints were taken in jail last month so that those could be matched with the records in the NID server, police found the discrepancy.

The Chattogram Prison authorities found around 12 more similar incidents in the prison in 2023. Among them, 2 are still in jail while the rest are on bail, said the authorities. In most cases, poor people serve the time instead of the actual convicts. The authorities said that the inmates told them they got between Tk 3,000 and Tk 15,000 to serve someone else’s time. Jail officials said the prison authority got access to the NID server since January, which allowed them to detect such fraudulence. Chattogram Central Jail’s Superintendent Muhammad Manjur Hossain said, “We have a prisoner database where we keep details of prisoners, including fingerprints. Recently, we have been able to match our data with the NID server.”

Source: https://www.thedailystar.net/news/bangladesh/crime-justice/news/serving-others-jail-term-just-tk-3000-3465316