Court Correspondent :
The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a High Court order acquitting former Assistant Commissioner (AC) Md Akram Hossain of the Detective Branch (DB) in a case filed over the murder of Shamim Reza Rubel in police custody.
A three-member Appellate Division Bench, headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha, passed the order
after hearing on an appeal filed by the State against a High Court order, that acquitted the accused including Akram.
However, the apex court dismissed an appeal filed by former Sub-Inspector (SI) Heyatul Islam Thakur, challenging the High Court order that upheld life term imprisonment sentence for him in the case.
According to the case documents, Independent University student Rubel was detained by a DB team, led by Thakur on July 23, 1998. He later died in police custody.
A trial court after holding hearing in the case sentenced 13 accused including Akram to life term imprisonment and another to one-year imprisonment.
Following an appeal filed by the defence, the High Court later acquitted all but Thakur in the case. The State and Thakur then filed separate appeals against the order.
