The Supreme Court on Thursday started hearing a leave-to-appeal petition filed against the High Court judgment that acquitted all the people convicted by the lower court in the murder and explosives substances act cases filed over the grenade attack on an Awami League rally in the capital's Bangabandhu Avenue on August 21, 2004.
A six-member Appellate Division bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed, started hearing the plea on Thursday morning. Additional Attorney Generals Mohammad Abdul Jabbar Bhuiyan, Mohammad Arshadur Rouf and Aneek Rushd Haque argued for the state.
The High Court on December 1, 2024, pronounced its verdict, scrapping the lower court judgment in the two cases. The court came up with the verdict after holding a hearing on the death references, criminal and jail appeals filed in the two cases.
“Death reference is rejected, all appeals are allowed, all rules are absolute,” said the identical short judgments pronounced by the High Court bench of Justice AKM Asaduzzaman and Justice Syed Enayet Hossain.
“The court observed that the lower court trial was illegal as it was not held in line with the law. No eyewitnesses were examined in the cases; rather, all the witnesses, who were examined, heard about the incident,” defence counsel Advocate Shishir Manir told the press.
Advocate Manir further said the court also observed that the lower court concerned delivered the judgment based on a confessional statement of Mufti Abdul Hannan, but his confessional statement has no evidential value as it was taken by force.
At least 24 people were killed and many others were injured in the grenade attack on an Awami League rally in Bangabandhu Avenue on August 21, 2004.
