UNB, Habiganj :
The hearing on the acceptance of a supplementary charge-sheet submitted by CID in the former Finance Minister Shah AMS Kibria murder case will be held on Wednesday.
Senior Judicial Magistrate Rokeya Aktar is set to hear the charge-sheet, said plaintiff’s lawyer Advocate Alamgir Bhuiyan Babul.
On November 13, the CID submitted the supplementary charge-sheet against 32 people, including former State Minister for Home Lutfozzaman Babar, former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia’s political secretary Harris Chowdhury and Sylhet City Corporation mayor Ariful Haque Chowdhury, in the murder case. Senior Assistant Superintendent Meherunnesa Parul of Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of Police, also the investigation officer of the case, submitted the charge-sheet incorporating the names of 11 more accused in the last supplementary charge-sheet.
The IO had also prayed to the court for exempting the three accused Yusuf Bin Sharif, Abu Bakar Abdul Karim and Ahsan Ullah-from the previous charge-sheet.
Those indicted freshly in the third charge-sheet are Ariful Haque Chowdhury, Harris Chowdhury, Habiganj district BNP general secretary GK Gaus, Sheikh Tajuddin, Mufti Shafiqur Rahman, Mufti Abdul Hai, Mohammad Ali, Badrul, Muhibur Rahman, Kajal and Hafez Yahiya.
Five people, including former Finance Minister Kibria, were killed and 70 others injured in a grenade attack on a public meeting of local Awami League at Baidder Bazar in Sadar upazila on January 27, 2005. Awami League leader Abdul Mazid Khan filed two cases-one for murder and the other under the Explosives Substances Act-with the Habiganj Police Station the following day.
Assistant Superintendent of CID Munshi Atique submitted a charge-sheet against 10 BNP leaders and activists on March 19, 2005. On June 20, 2011, CID Senior Assistant Superintendent Mohammad Rafiqul Islam submitted a supplementary charge-sheet incorporating the names of 14 more people, including former state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar and Mufti Hannan, following a naraji petition filed by the plaintiff.
Upon an appeal by the complainant, the High Court on May 5, 2006 stayed the proceedings of the cases. Following another appeal by the complainant, the tribunal on May 14, 2006 ordered further investigation into the cases.
After further probe, Rafiqul submitted the first supplementary charge-sheet. However, Asma Kibria, wife of the slain minister, filed a petition with a local court expressing no confidence in the investigation. The court then forwarded the case documents along with the petition to the tribunal concerned.
Later, the tribunal on January 5, 2012 ordered the CID to carry out further probe into the killing.
