The High Court has declared the trial court’s verdict in the August 21 grenade attack case invalid, stating that it was based on inadmissible evidence, including confessional statements obtained under duress.
During the verdict delivered on Sunday, the High Court noted that a charge sheet filed in 2011, based on the confession of Mufti Hannan, lacked legal merit.
"The trial court's judgment, being reliant on such evidence, is illegal and invalid," the court observed.
The bench of Justice AKM Asaduzzaman and Justice Syed Enayet Hossain pointed out that the accused's confessional statement held no evidentiary value.
"The statement was extracted under duress and was not properly verified by the concerned magistrate," the court remarked.
Advocate Shishir Monir, representing the defendants, argued that Mufti Hannan had given two confessional statements, both of which lacked credibility.
“There is no precedent in the Indian subcontinent’s 400-year legal history where a conviction was based on a second confessional statement, especially one later retracted,” he said.
The High Court agreed, declaring the second statement legally invalid and overturning the trial court’s judgment.
The trial court had sentenced 49 individuals in connection with the attack, including – 19 individuals on the death penalty, including former state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar and former deputy education minister Abdus Salam Pintu; 19 individuals on life imprisonment, including BNP acting chairman Tarique Rahman; and 11 individuals on various jail terms.
The High Court has now acquitted all accused and declared the trial court’s ruling void.
About the attack
The cases stem from the grenade attack on an Awami League rally at Bangabandhu Avenue in Dhaka on August 21, 2004. The attack left 24 people dead and injured approximately 300 others.
Sheikh Hasina, the then opposition leader and a target of the attack, narrowly escaped harm. She later served as prime minister for 15 years but resigned and fled the country on August 5 this year amid a mass uprising.
Earlier court decisions
On October 10, 2018, a Dhaka court sentenced 19 individuals, including former BNP state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar, to death over their involvement in the attack.
Another 19 individuals, including BNP acting chairman Tarique Rahman, now in London, were sentenced to life imprisonment. Eleven others received varying prison sentences.
Of the convicted individuals, 18 remain at large, while 31 are currently in custody.
