Staff Reporter :
The formal trial of much-talked-about Narayanganj seven-murder cases has begun. A Narayanganj court started recording deposition in the cases on Monday with the deposition of a witness in one of the two cases filed over the gruesome murders.
Judge Syed Enayet Hossain of Narayanganj District and Sessions Judge’s Court started recording the deposition. Bijoy Kumar Paul, complainant of a case and son-in-law of slain lawyer Chandan Kumar Sarker, testified for two and a half hours before the court on the first day.
The court adjourned the deposition until March 7 following a petition filed by Khokan Saha, counsel for prime accused Nur Hossain and sacked RAB officials Lt Col Tareque Sayeed and Lt Commander MM Rana. The lawyer filed the time-petition, mentioning the reason that they were yet to collect necessary documents to cross-examine the witness.
The court will record the deposition in the other case filed by Selina Islam Beauty, wife of slain Narayanganj panel mayor Nazrul Islam, on March 3.
Meanwhile, few minutes before the judge took his seat, Public Prosecutor Wajed Ali Khokon told everybody present in the courtroom to leave the courtroom that as per a court directive none but the complainants, accused, lawyers and court officials concerned was necessary to remain present there.
Later, all the journalists present there were driven out from the courtroom, reports a Correspondent from Narayanganj.
Earlier in the morning, 23 accused including Nur Hossain, Tareque Sayeed and MM Rana, were produced before the court. Counsel for 22 of them cross-examined Bijoy Kumar Paul after his deposition.
The court was scheduled to start recording witnesses’ statements on February 25 but failed, as Tareque was not produced before the court on that day. Following this, the court had asked the jail authorities to explain Tareque’s absence, adjourned the court proceedings for half an hour and ordered the public prosecutor to find out why he was not in the court.
Tareque was the commanding officer of RAB-11 in Narayanganj at the time when the incident took place. He and two other RAB officials were sacked after their alleged involvement in the crime surfaced.
Tareque is currently at Dhaka Medical College Hospital where he was admitted with “back pain” on January 3. He has been undergoing “treatment” there at the Neurosurgery Department.
On April 27 in 2014, Nazrul Islam, his three aides and driver were kidnapped allegedly by a team of RAB-11 from Fatullah of Narayanganj. Senior lawyer Chandan Sarker and his driver were also picked up around the same time, as they witnessed the abduction of Nazrul and others. Later, all the seven bodies were found floating in the Shitalakkhya river.
Days after the murders, Nazrul’s father-in-law Shahidul Islam alleged that some officials of RAB-11 killed Nazrul in exchange for Tk. 6 crore from Nur Hossain.
Two cases were filed in this connection — one by Nazrul’s family and the other by Chandan’s family.
Detectives pressed charges against 35 people in each case. Of them, 23 accused, including the three sacked RAB officials, are now in jail. Twelve others, eight of them RAB men, are on the run.
