The prosecution in the trial of Jamaat-e-Islami leader ATM Azharul Islam has pleaded for imposing high punishment and cost upon the defence for their ‘fraud practice’.Prosecutor Zead-al Malum made the plea in his submission as the defence submitted a petition for allowing them to inspect the investigation report, hiding the fact that they had already inspected the report once earlier.”The tribunal should impose high punishment and cost upon them for such a fraud practice by submitting such an annoying petition at this stage of the trial,” Malum said.Advocate Abdus Subhan Tarafder, counsel for Azhar, however tried to save his face by saying he did not have any idea of the earlier order and tried to put the blame on the shoulder of his junior colleague.”At that time we were not able to inspect the report properly,” Tarafder added.He also pleaded for allowing them to cross-examine the investigation officer (IO) on ‘inconsistency’ found in the depositions of some prosecution witnesses (PWs).”It is not our duty to make sure your proper inspection. You got 3 weeks’ time before the start of examining the investigation officer. Why didn’t you file these petitions then?” asked Justice M Enayetur Rahim, chairman of the three- member panel of ICT-1, in reply to the defence petitions and rejected both the pleas.The tribunal adjourned the hearing of this trial till Sunday and asked defence and prosecution to be ready to take part in hearing on the matter of fixing the number of defence witnesses. Meanwhile, the defence could not conclude the cross-examination of the IO despite repeated cautions from the tribunal.
