The court also directed the convict to pay Tk 36, 07,048 in favour of the government through treasury cheque, as he had already sold all the cellphone sets.

Judge Mohammad Rabiul Hassan of the Second Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court handed down the verdict in presence of the convict Hira Ahmed alias Bachchu of Tongibari in Munshiganj district.

On hearing the verdict, Bachchu who was on bail, broke down in tears and told the reporters that he would appeal to the higher court against the judgement.

Earlier, the prosecution and the defence had completed their arguments and the court recorded statements of eight prosecution witnesses.

According to prosecution, Bachchu was arrested at Zia International Airport (ZIA) at about 10:30pm on September 17, 2003 after he landed from the Kuala Lumpur MH-196 flight with a luggage of mobile phone sets worth about Tk 36, 64,000. Bachchu failed to show any valid documents to customs officials at ZIA during the search.

Later, a case under the Special Powers Act 1974 was filed with Airport Police Station against Bachchu the same day for smuggling the cellphone sets and evading a huge amount of revenue, the prosecution added.

But the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court granted Bachchu bail upon a bond of Tk 10,000 with two guarantors the following day. The court also ordered to return all the cellphone sets seized by the customs to Bachchu.

Assistant Public Prosecutor Sahidul Islam Sardar appeared for the state while advocates Sanaullah Miah and Mohammad Borhanuddin defended the accused.