Court Correspondent :
Dhaka’s Second Additional Metropolitan Sessions’ Judge’s Court on Monday sentenced Harkatul Jihad (Huji) top leader Mufti Abdul Hannan and seven others to death and six others to life term imprisonment in the case filed in connection with the terrorist attack on the celebrations of Bangla New Year at Dhaka Ramna Batamul in 2001.
Judge Ruhul Amin began reading out the verdict at a quarter to 12 noon in his crowded courtroom and took only 15 minutes to complete.
Other seven death sentenced convicts are Arif Hasan Sumon, Maolana Akbar Hossain, Maolana Md Tajuddin, Hafez Jahangir Alam Badr, Maulana Abu Bakr alias Hafez Selim Howladar, Mufti Shafiqur Rahman and Mufti Abdul Hai.
Shahadatullah Jewel, Maulana Sabbir alias Abdul Hannan Sabbir, Maulana Shawkat Osman alias Sheikh Farid, Hafez Maulana Yahia, Maolana Abdur Rouf and Hafez Maulana Abu Taher were awarded life term imprisonment. Their imprisonment will be rigorous and they were also fined Tk 50,000 each. In default, they will suffer one year more in prison.
Death sentenced Tajuddin, Jahangir, Abu Bakr, Shafiqur Rahman and Abdul Hai are at large.
Earlier, on May 28, the court had decided to pronounce the verdict of the Rmna Batamul blast case on June 16. However, on the day the court deferred the announcement of the verdict to June 23.
At the end of the deposition, the eighth Investigation Officer (IO) of the case, Abu Hena M Yusuf submitted a sketch map over the plan of the blast operation that took place during the Chhayanaut’s Pahela Baishakh celebrations on April 14 in 2001, leaving 10 people dead and injuring scores of others. Later, the prosecution completed their arguments on May 18 and demanded capital punishment for the accused. They argued that they had proved the charges brought against 14 top leaders of the banned military outfit Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (Huji).
Over seven and a half years after the Ramna Batamul bloodbath, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on November 30, 2008 pressed charges against 14 operatives of Huji, including its chief Mufti Abdul Hannan. The court framed charges against them on April 16, 2009. Till October 23 last year, of the 84 prosecution witnesses, the court recorded the depositions of 61 to give the verdict.
Police filed two cases about the incident, one for murder and another for explosives explosion. The explosives’ case is still under trial. Charges were framed against 14 people after eight years of the incident.
Of the accused, nine were produced to the court from the bar on Monday morning.They were : Hannan, Akbar Hossain, Arif Hossain Sumon, Shahadatullah Jewel, Sabbir, Shawkat Hossain alias Farid, Abdur Rouf, Abu Taher and Yahia. Hannan, Akbar and Arif made confessional statements admitting their involvement in the incident of the case. The case statement says that a bomb was exploded during the Pahela Baishakh celebrations killing the victims and injuring many others. Nine people were killed on the spot and the other victim died in hospital. Police filed two cases on the day of bomb explosion, one for murder and another was lodged under the Explosives Substances Act. As mentioned the second case is still under trial.
As per defence lawyers, some of the convicts of the much-talked about case, some of the convicts are expected to appeal against the verdict. However, after the pronouncement of the verdict, the convicts appeared calm although their lawyers seemed disappointed.
Defence counsel Jasim Uddin said, “There were no eyewitness in the case. Besides, his clients Taher and Jewel did not appear in the video footage, produced to the court.” They will appeal to the apex court against this verdict, he added.
Meanwhile, Akbar Hossain’s counsel Mahbub Hossain said, “We have proved to the court that our client was forced to make confessional statement to the court. The court gave a death sentence depending on that statement. We will appeal to the High Court in due time.”
It may be remembered that Akbar, Mufti Hannan and Sumon gave confessional statements to the court Under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. Their names are included in the list of death sentenced convicts.
