Judge to read out the depositions on Sept 9
Staff Correspondent
The trial of the country’s biggest ever murder case, over the 2009
BDR carnage, yesterday marked a big step forward with the court wrapping
up recording statements and cross-examination of prosecution witnesses.
Counsels of former BNP lawmaker Nasiruddin Ahmed Pintu, one of the accused, yesterday finished cross-examining the case’s Investigation Officer (IO) Abdul Kahar Akand, whom the court had decided was the last prosecution witness.
Out of 1,333 prosecution witnesses, the makeshift court in the capital’s Bakshibazar recorded statements of 654.
Judge Mohammad Zohurul Hoque fixed September 9 to read out the witnesses’ statements against the accused and to ask the accused whether they were guilty.
The court will then ask the accused whether they will produce defence witnesses to claim themselves innocent. Once their depositions are recorded and they are cross-examined, the court will hear arguments from the prosecution and the defence.
The court will then fix a date to deliver judgement.
Yesterday, Khandker Mahbub Hossain, Aminul Islam and Md Shahjahan cross-examined the IO, a Criminal Investigation Department special superintendent.
Noted lawyers Rafique-Ul Huq, former attorney general AJ Mohammad Ali and BNP leaders Moudud Ahmed and Rafiqul Islam Mia were also present to represent Pintu.
Aminul said the addresses which three prosecution witnesses against Pintu gave have houses owned by former Awami League lawmaker Haji Selim, a political rival of Pintu.
The witnesses are loyal to Selim and the Awami League-led government implicated Pintu to harass him politically, he alleged.
The IO claimed that he did not investigate this and he only called the three for their statements.
The charge-sheet accused 850 persons, including 823 BDR jawans, one Ansar member and 23 civilians. Three of them died later. The trial began with the complainant’s deposition on August 24 in 2011.
The witnesses narrated everything, from the plot to the looting of arsenals, torture and murders, during the February 25-26 rebellion inside the Pilkhana headquarters of the then Bangladesh Rifles (BDR), later renamed as Border Guard Bangladesh.
The witnesses included several ministers, lawmakers, chiefs of the three armed forces, inspector general of police, and family members of the slain officers.
Fifty-seven senior and mid-ranking army officers, including the then BDR chief Maj Gen Shakil Ahmed, were among the 74 people killed. The body of Shakil’s wife was retrieved from one of the four mass graves dug by the mutineers. In October 2012, special courts set up to deal with the 57 mutiny cases completed trial.
Published: Tuesday, September 3, 2013
Counsels of former BNP lawmaker Nasiruddin Ahmed Pintu, one of the accused, yesterday finished cross-examining the case’s Investigation Officer (IO) Abdul Kahar Akand, whom the court had decided was the last prosecution witness.
Out of 1,333 prosecution witnesses, the makeshift court in the capital’s Bakshibazar recorded statements of 654.
Judge Mohammad Zohurul Hoque fixed September 9 to read out the witnesses’ statements against the accused and to ask the accused whether they were guilty.
The court will then ask the accused whether they will produce defence witnesses to claim themselves innocent. Once their depositions are recorded and they are cross-examined, the court will hear arguments from the prosecution and the defence.
The court will then fix a date to deliver judgement.
Yesterday, Khandker Mahbub Hossain, Aminul Islam and Md Shahjahan cross-examined the IO, a Criminal Investigation Department special superintendent.
Noted lawyers Rafique-Ul Huq, former attorney general AJ Mohammad Ali and BNP leaders Moudud Ahmed and Rafiqul Islam Mia were also present to represent Pintu.
Aminul said the addresses which three prosecution witnesses against Pintu gave have houses owned by former Awami League lawmaker Haji Selim, a political rival of Pintu.
The witnesses are loyal to Selim and the Awami League-led government implicated Pintu to harass him politically, he alleged.
The IO claimed that he did not investigate this and he only called the three for their statements.
The charge-sheet accused 850 persons, including 823 BDR jawans, one Ansar member and 23 civilians. Three of them died later. The trial began with the complainant’s deposition on August 24 in 2011.
The witnesses narrated everything, from the plot to the looting of arsenals, torture and murders, during the February 25-26 rebellion inside the Pilkhana headquarters of the then Bangladesh Rifles (BDR), later renamed as Border Guard Bangladesh.
The witnesses included several ministers, lawmakers, chiefs of the three armed forces, inspector general of police, and family members of the slain officers.
Fifty-seven senior and mid-ranking army officers, including the then BDR chief Maj Gen Shakil Ahmed, were among the 74 people killed. The body of Shakil’s wife was retrieved from one of the four mass graves dug by the mutineers. In October 2012, special courts set up to deal with the 57 mutiny cases completed trial.
Published: Tuesday, September 3, 2013
