The High Court on Sunday gave petitioners two weeks to inform it of the “whereabouts of Sukharanjan Bali”, a prosecution witness who was abducted allegedly by law enforcers after he had decided to testify in favour of convicted war criminal Delawar Hossain Sayedee.
The bench, led by Justice M Moazzam Husain, allowed time for submitting a supplementary affidavit in this regard, upon a Habeas Corpus writ petition filed by one Abul Kalam Azad of Pirojpur, said petitioner’s counsel Mir Ahmad Bin Quasem.
Recent media reports suggest that a person named Sukharanjan Bali was traced to Kolkata’s Dumdum prison.
A Habeas Corpus petition requires a person under arrest to be brought before a judge or a court. The principle of Habeas Corpus ensures that a prisoner can be released from unlawful detention – that is, a detention lacking sufficient cause or evidence.
Mir Ahmad, who is also the son of war crimes suspect Mir Quasem, told the Dhaka Tribune that they had asked for one week but the court gave them two. “My client [Abul Kalam] was absent today,” he said.
The petitioner, claiming to be a friend of Bali, filed the plea immediately after the alleged abduction, Mir Ahmad said.
The court is likely to proceed further once the supplementary affidavit is submitted.
The defence team of the International Crimes Tribunal 1 claims that Bali was allegedly picked up by plainclothes police on November 5 last year, from the south gate of the Supreme Court when he was heading to the tribunal.
November 5 was set for beginning of the prosecution’s final arguments. Recording of the defence witnesses’ deposition was completed on October 23.
The prosecution did not or could not produce Bali before the tribunal during the trial, saying that he was missing.
On November 13, Abul’s petition was rejected by the bench of Justice Naima Haider and Justice Muhammad Khurshid Alam Sarkar as “not pressed”, which means the petitioner have the liberty to move the matter to another bench.
On November 15, another HC bench decided to move the case to the chief justice for a decision, since one of its two judges initially declined to hear the petition.
Jamaat leader Sayedee was sentenced to death by the tribunal for crimes against humanity committed during the country’s Liberation War in 1971.
