A court in India's Shillong has set Friday for delivering the verdict in a case filed against BNP leader Salahuddin Ahmed for illegally entering Indian territory.

The court finished hearings on August 13.

Salahuddin told The Daily Star yesterday that he was hopeful of getting justice. The date for verdict delivery had been deferred four times before, he said.

Salahuddin, now 57, was a state minister of the last Khaleda Zia-led BNP government.

People found him allegedly "hanging around" in Shillong on May 11, 2015, according to Meghalaya police and Indian media. 

Meghalaya police arrested him in connection with trespassing since he had no travel documents.

On May 12, 2015, Salahuddin's wife told the press in Bangladesh that her husband called her from Meghalaya Institute of Mental Health and Neurological Science.    

Salahuddin's family members and the BNP had alleged that law enforcers had picked him up at a house in Dhaka's Uttara on March 10, 2015.