A Dhaka court Sunday deferred the trial proceedings of an arson case filed against 46 opposition leaders including BNP’s acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir to August 14.
The case was lodged in connection with torching a bus in front of the Prime Minister’s Office during the hartal on April 29, 2012.
Magistrate Harun-Ur-Rashid of Speedy Trial Tribunal 5 allowed the time petition and fixed date for the witness to testify and submit the Supreme Court order that vacated the stay order of the High Court and directed to run the trial proceedings.
Defence Counsel Sanaullah Miah filed the petition for five lawmakers and seven others including Barkat Ullah Bulu, who is in custody for another case, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and Khondoker Mosharraf Hossain.
It was also mentioned in the time petition that the five parliamentarians are busy attending the ongoing parliament session.
So, they are unable to appear at the court and needed time.
The five parliamentarians are MK Anowar, Barrister Mahabub Uddin Khokon, Shahid Uddin Chowdhury Aney, Liberal Democratic Party Chairman Col (retd) Oli Ahmed and Bangladesh Jatiya Party Chairman (BJP) Barrister Andaleeve Rahman Partha.
BNP’s standing committee member ASM Hannan Shah and Goyeshwar Chandra Roy were present before the court with 10 other accused.
Earlier, the defence filed a petition with the High Court division under section 561 of the code of criminal procedure that the case be quashed.
The High court stayed the proceedings for six months.
Later, the appellate division of the Supreme Court vacated the stay order of the HC and directed the trial court to restart the case proceedings.
The defence later filed a leave to appeal against the SC order which was pending for hearing.
Sunday was fixed for submitting the Supreme Court division order and appearance of prosecution witnesses.
Sub-Inspector Ismail Mazumder of Tejgaon police station filed the case against the 46 leaders and workers of the 18-party alliance.
On May 10, 2012, DB Inspector Nurul Amin, who is also the investigation officer of the arson case, submitted charge sheet against the 46 accused.
The investigation officer produced 18 people, including the owner and driver of the torched vehicle during the hartal, as prosecution witness.
Earlier on July 31, 2012, the same court framed charges against Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and the other accused.
They obtained bail on June 7 and June 14 of 2012 from the High Court and trial court.