Abdur Rauf Daud Merchant, who is convicted of killing T-Series founder Gulshan Kumar (pictured above), was released from Dhaka Central Jail in Bangladesh on Sunday, Dhaka Tribune reported on Monday. Merchant was first arrested in Bangladesh in 2009 for illegally entering the country after he was released on parole from an Indian jail.
Merchant's release came three days after a court acquitted him of charges of suspicious movement. Bangladesh Home Minister AS Kamal said the Indian High Commission will now decide on how he will return to India. Merchant – an alleged aide of gangster Dawood Ibrahim – will have to acquire a Bangladeshi visa if he wants to remain in the country, Kamal said.
The Indian government has been working to extradite Merchant, who was sentenced to life imprisonment by a Mumbai sessions court in 2002. He was arrested in Bangladesh's Brahmanbaria in November 2009 for trespassing and possessing a fake Bangladeshi passport and was sent to Dhaka Central Jail after being re-arrested in November 2014.
Cooperation between the Indian and Bangladeshi governments has increased in recent months. In November 2015, Bangladesh had handed over a leader of the United Liberation Front of Assam, Anup Chetia, to Indian authorities. New Delhi had then extradited Nur Hossain, who was the prime accused in the murders of seven people.
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