Staff Reporter :
The elite force Rapid Action Battalion [RAB] has submitted its investigation report to the Attorney General’s Office accusing three former officials for their involvement in Narayanganj seven-murder case.
Officials said the report was received on November 23. The AG Office will place it to the High Court bench comprising Justice Md Rezaul Haque and Justice Gobinda Chandra Tagore on December 10.
According to the investigation report, former Commanding Officer of Battalion-11 [posted in Narayanganj] Lt Col Tareque Sayeed Mohammad, former Deputy Commanding Officer of RAB-11 Major Arif Hossain and Lt Commander SM Masud Rana were directly involved in the killing.
Col Tareque, Major Arif Hossain and Lt Commander SM Rana were among 26 arrested in connection with the seven-murder. Of them, 14 arrestees including Tareque and Arif, have given confessional statements admitting their roles in the seven-murder.
When contacted, Attorney General Mahabubey Alam told The New Nation, “It’s a sub judice matter. I can’t disclose the contents of the report at this moment.”
Earlier, Major Arif Hossain in his confessional statement said that Col. Tareq had ordered the ‘removal’ of seven persons. Nur Hossain, another NCC councillor, who had provided the RAB men with detailed information about Nazrul, was also in the killers’ hit list.
According to the confessional statement of Tareq Sayeed, Additional DG of RAB Col. Ziaul Ahsan had issued the arrest order in March and Councillor Nazrul was killed after abduction in April next.
Tareque Sayeed is the son-in-law of Awami League leader and Disaster Management Minister Moffazel Hossain Chowdhury Maya.
On April 27, Narayanganj panel Mayor Nazrul Islam and six others, including lawyer Chandan Sarkar, were kidnapped and killed allegedly by a RAB team led by Lt Col Tareque Sayeed.
Their bodies were found floating in the Sitalakkhya River after a few days.
A case was filed with the concerned police station accusing Awami League leader and Ward-4 councillor Nur Hossain as the prime suspect. Nazrul’s father-in-law Shahidul Islam alleged that Nur Hossain had paid Tk six crore to RAB members to commit the murders.
West Bengal police on June 14 arrested Nur Hossain with two of his accomplices from a Kolkata apartment near Netaji Subhas Chandra Basu International Airport.
Meanwhile, the HC has cautioned RAB when its internal departmental investigation [about involvement of its members] took a turn to the ‘main investigation’.
Besides, the Supreme Court [SC] recently directed the Criminal Investigation Department [CID] not to continue the investigation of sensational Narayanganj seven- murder case anymore. The decision of the country’s apex court came following a plea from the state.
The state prosecution earlier filed a petition with the HC for withdrawing the CID from the investigation. But the HC rejected the plea by bringing a minor change in its order given on July 10. It had asked the CID to conduct ‘inquiry’ instead of ‘investigation’.
In this backdrop, the prosecution filed appeal with the SC against the HC order.
As per the HC directives, a high-powered seven-member general inquiry committee headed by Additional Secretary of Public Administration Ministry Shahajahan Ali Mollah was also formed to conduct investigation into the same matter.
Besides, the Detective and Criminal Intelligence Division of police has been conducting investigation into the incident.
