Five years have elapsed after the brutal murder of four-year-old Samiul Azim Wafi in the capital’s Adabar area but the trial has not yet ended.
Samiul’s mother Ayesha Humayra Esha killed her son on June 23, 2010, in the house as her illicit relationship with Md Shamsuzzaman Arif alias Bakku was exposed to the boy. Arif was an accomplice in the killing.
The case is still pending at Dhaka’s Fourth Special Judge’s Court due to non-appearance of prosecution witnesses in court for giving depositions.
Sources said the witnesses fear appearing in court as the prime accused, Shamsuzzaman, has threatened them not to give depositions against him, causing the trial to move at a snail’s pace.
It has also been alleged that the prosecution is reluctant to produce witnesses in court.
The court has so far recorded depositions of 17 prosecution witnesses out of 31 since the trial began.
The court’s Public Prosecutor Faruquzzman Bhuiyan Tipu said the trial had dragged on for too long.
“We are trying our best to dispose of the case but the absence of witnesses has been a big obstacle.”
On the day of the murder, Samiul’s father KR Azim lodged the case with Adabar police station accusing his wife Esha and Shamsuzzaman.
On October 25, 2011, Officer-in-Charge of Adabar police station Kazi Shahin Haque submitted the charge sheet.
It was mentioned in the charge sheet that the accused had killed Samiul as he happened to see Esha and Shamsuzzaman in an intimate state in the house.
After the murder, RAB arrested Esha and Shamsuzzaman.
On June 28, 2010, Shamsuzzaman confessed to killing the child with the help of Esha.
On February 20 last year, Shamsuzzaman was granted a four-week bail from the High Court and immediately went into hiding.
After obtaining bail, he reportedly threatened Samiul’s father not to present witnesses in court against him by saying that the father would face the same fate as his son.
Azim reported the threat to police and filed a general diary with Pallabi police station in March last year.
Esha also was bailed in the case two months after Shamsuzzaman was granted bail.
Mentioning the recent trials of the murders of Rajon and Rakib, Azim told the Dhaka Tribune: “I will also get justice if the government wants.”