A Chittagong court yesterday fixed January 30 for delivering the verdict in two cases related to the sensational recovery of 10-trucks full of arms and ammunition on April 2, 2004.
Judge of Chittagong metropolitan special tribunal 1, SM Mujibur Rahman, fixed the date on the completion of verbal arguments by defence lawyers.
Public prosecutor Kamal Uddin Ahmed concluded his verbal arguments in the cases on Sunday. He told reporters that the court had directed the prosecution and the defence to submit their written arguments by January 23.
The court also asked Abdus Sobhan Tarafder, counsel for the former state minister for home,Lutfozzaman Babar, to submit his written arguments by the fixed date as he could not appear before the court yesterday.
Meanwhile, the court did not take the verbal arguments of Brig Gen (retd) Abdur Rahim, former director general of National Security Intelligence (NSI), and Maj (retd) Liakat Hossain, a former NSI director, which were placed before the High Court expressing a lack of confidence in the trial court.
In the two cases, a total of 50 people were sued in arms case, and 52 in smuggling cases relating to the sensational incident.
The other accused include former industries minister and Jamaat-e-Islami chief Motiur Rahman Nizami, former managing director of Chittagong Urea Fertiliser Limited (CUFL) Mohshin Uddin Talukder, former CUFL general manager of AKM Enamul Haque, alleged smuggler Hafizur Rahman, Din Mohammad, former NSI field officer Akbar Hossain, former NSI director Wing Commander (retd) Shahabuddin Ahmed, former NSI chief NSI Maj Gen (retd) Rezzaqul Haider Chowdhury.Accused ULFA leaders Paresh Barua and former industries secretary Nurul Amin are on the run.
The defence claimed that the seizure of arms and ammunition was related to the home ministry and that the government had implicated Nizamiin the cases in 2009for political reasons.
The lawyers of others accused claimed their clients were innocent, and that their names were not included in the First Information Report on the cases. The prosecution witnesses mentioned the names of the accused before the court under the influence of the prosecution.
They also demanded further investigationsin the cases.
The prosecution produced 56 witnesses, out of 256, before the court.
Law enforcers on April 2, 2004seized 4,930 types of sophisticated firearms, 27,020 grenades, 840 rocket launchers, 300 rockets, 2,000 grenade launching tubes, 6,392 magazines and 11,40,520 bullets as they were being loaded on to 10 trucks from two engine-boats at the CUFL jetty.
Ahadur Rahman, then Karnaphuli OC, filed the cases the next day. The cases were transferred to the Criminal Investigation Department after 22 days.The CID on June 26, 2011 submitted supplementary charge sheets following further investigations into the cases upon a court directive.