A Dhaka court has set July 22 for the final time for submitting the probe report on the murder case of Maj Gen Abul Manzoor, filed 17 years ago, against multiple accused, including Jatiya Party Chairman HM Ershad.
Previously, April 22 was declared as the date of submission of further investigation report on the case.
However, the case’s Investigation Officer, Special Police Superintendent of CID Abdul Kahar Akand, was unable to submit the report on the due date and petitioned the court, seeking more time.
Later, Dhaka Special Additional District and Sessions Judge Pradip Kumar Roy fixed July 22 as the final date of the submission of the probe report, confirmed prosecutor Asaduzzaman Khan.
Other than former President HM Ershad, whose Jatiya Party is a key ally of the ruling Awami League, the other four accused in the case are Major (retd) Kazi Emdadul Haque, Lt Col (retd) Mostafa Kamal Uddin Bhuiyan, Lt Col (retd) Shamsur Rahman Shams, and Maj Gen (retd) Adbul Latif.
Currently, HM Ershad, Kazi Emdadul Haque and Mostafa Kamal Uddin Bhuiyan are being investigated in the case since the other two, Latif and Shams, were able to obtain a stay order from the High Court, freeing them from being a target of any investigation.
The trial court ordered further investigations into the case after the presiding judge, who kept the verdict pending to be declared on February 10, 2014, was transferred.
Maj Gen Manzoor was killed in 1981 after the assassination of BNP founder and then president Ziaur Rahman.
Ziaur Rahman was killed on May 30, 1981 during a military coup. At that time, Maj Gen Abul Manzoor was the General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the 24th infantry battalion of Chattogram. The police detained Manzoor after he went into hiding following Zia's death.
On February 28, 1995, Manzoor’s brother lodged a case with Panchlaish police station in Chattogram, accusing Major Emdadul of killing Manzoor. On July 15 that year, Abdul Kahar Akand, the assistant police superintendent at the time, pressed charges against the six with the court.
The then army chief, Lt Gen Abu Saleh Md Nasim, and a metropolitan judge, Abul Hashem, gave testimony before the court on October 28, 2010.
Soon after the current government assumed power, the hearing of testimony in the case came to a standstill.
This article was published on banglatribune.com