The police have submitted supplementary charge sheet against 35 people including 11 new in former finance minister Shah AMS Kibria murder case. Of the freshly-indicted accused, three are top BNP leaders including Harris Chowdhury, a former political adviser to Khaleda Zia.
The two other BNP leaders are Sylhet City Corporation Mayor Ariful Haque Chowdhury and Sylhet municipality Mayor GK Gaus, also the Habiganj district unit BNP general secretary.
Harris is a charge sheeted accused in Zia Orphanage Trust case and Zia Charitable Trust cases, filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission.
The case has been dealt by the CID since 2005 and pressed two charge sheets. But the aggrieved family of Kibria filed no-confidence petitions against the first charge sheet and also the supplementary charge sheet terming those “incomplete and ill-motivated.”
The CID has also found involvement of 11 operatives of banned Islamist outfit Huji including its chief Mufti Hannan and Maulana Tajuddin, brother of BNP leader Abdus Salam Pintu.
Yesterday, CID’s Assistant Police Superintendent Meherunnesa Khanum placed the supplementary charge sheet before the Habiganj Sadar Court of Judge Rokeya Khatun.
Meherunnesa has submitted the charge sheet 23 months after she was given the responsibility. The order follows a no-confidence petition filed by Kibria’s wife on January 5, 2012.
Five people including Kibria were killed in a grenade attack after attending a rally in Boidyer Bazar of Habiganj on January 27, 2005. Sylhet district unit Awami League leader Abdul Mazid Khan MP filed two cases the following day – for murder and use of explosives.
The former minister was critically injured in the attack and died on the way to hospital. The four other deceased were his nephew Shah Manzurul Huda, and Awami League leaders Abdur Rahim, Abul Hossain and Siddique Ali. Over 100 people were injured the grenade attack.
Kibria joined the Awami League in 1994 and became its adviser. He was made finance minister in 1996 and elected a lawmaker in 2001 from Habiganj 3 constituency (Sadar and Lakhai).
The government earlier dismissed the former police super of Habiganj, Emdadul Haque, for diverting the motive and merit of the case.
In the petition against the second charge sheet in 2011, wife of the former minister Asma Kibria had complained that the names of many bigwigs had been missing.
Then DGFI chief Maj Gen (retd) Sadik Hasan Rumi, several military officers and leaders of the BNP-Jamaat coalition government were involved in the murder, the petition said.
Following filing of the cases, the Home Ministry assigned CID’s Munshi Atiqur Rahman as the investigation officer of the cases.
In April 2005, a government-formed high-powered committee submitted its report accusing 10 people including some grassroots BNP leaders and activists of the murders. The Sylhet Divisional Speedy Trial Tribunal started the trial through framing of charges against the accused.
But following an appeal for further investigation by the complainant, the High Court stayed the proceedings.
A further investigation was launched during the past caretaker government rule. The CID on June 20, 2011 pressed charges against 14 more people, including former state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar and Harkat-ul-Jihad (Huji) leader Hannan.