The government is taking action to identify the leakers of the draft verdict in the war crimes case against BNP Standing Committee member Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, a day before its pronouncement.
State Minister for Law Quamrul Islam said on Wednesday: “We can easily guess who are involved in such incidents. The persons who are trying to create controversy regarding the war crimes trial are involved in it.”
The registrar of the International Crimes Tribunal has filed a general diary regarding the incident and the Detective Branch (DB) of Police has been tasked to investigate. “We hope that the DB police will unearth the matter soon,” Quamrul said.
“The culprits will be arrested as soon as the investigation is over and their identities will be disclosed publicly,” he added.
Meanwhile, BTRC Chairman Sunil Kanti Bose told the Dhaka Tribune they had received an instruction from the law ministry to give technical support for the investigation. “We will provide our experts to find out the matter and identify the criminals,” he said.
He added the telecom regulator had already blocked the websites “Jatir Santan,” “Sheikh News” and “bdtomorrow”, which published the “leaked verdict” according to the directives of the government.
But, the technical experts of the BTRC claimed that it would not bring any result in stopping publicity of the document as it has already been copied “hundreds of thousands”.
The cyber crimes cell of the home ministry is yet to take any measure regarding the “leak.”
Additional Secretary Mainuddin Khandokar of the home ministry Wednesday told the Dhaka Tribune that they had no movement regarding the incident as “it is not a matter of the home ministry.”
He said they had not got any instruction from the higher authorities.
The Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) Wednesday demanded that an inquiry committee led by a former chief justice be formed to investigate the “leak” incident.
SCBA Secretary and BNP lawmaker Mahbub Uddin Khokon also said: “Khandker Mahbub Hossain did not commit any contempt of court, rather he wanted transparent trial and elicit the real cause behind the leak of the judgement.”
Supreme Court lawyer Khandaker Mahbub Hossain, an adviser to the BNP chairperson, on Tuesday said each and every person involved with the trial process would be tried if BNP assumed power.
State Minister for Law and Justice Quamrul Islam earlier in the day urged Mahbub Hossain to withdraw his comments which he termed “absolute contempt of court.”