The home ministry in a gazette notification transferred the sensational case in connection with Bishwajit Das murder to a Dhaka’s Speedy Trial Tribunal for formal trial.
The public prosecutor of the Speedy Trial Tribunal 4, SM Rafiqul Islam, confirmed the Dhaka Tribune about receiving the gazette. He also said the section already received the case docket for trial.
Now, the tribunal will fix a date for trial once the judge is appointed. But the judge of the tribunal was transferred to Dhaka’s Special Judge’s Court 3 on June 27.
Even though the gazette was published on June 18, the home ministry did not send it to the court. According to the Speedy Trial Tribunals Act, the court will have to finish the trial within 135 working days.
Rafiqul Islam said the trial would be hampered if the government did not appoint the judge as soon as possible.
Earlier on June 27, Dhaka Metropolitan Session’s Judge Md Zahurul Haque fixed July 14 for prosecution witness. Public prosecutor of the court Md Abdullah Abu said the case was likely to be transferred to a Speedy Trial Tribunal for a quick trial considering its sensitivity.
The same court on June 2 framed charges against the 21 activists of Bangladesh Chhatra League of Jagannath University unit for their alleged involvement in the killing.
Bishwajit, a 24-year-old tailor, was hacked to death on December 9 last year, by the BCL activists near Bahadur Shah Park in the court area in Old Dhaka soon after pro-opposition lawyers brought out a procession in support of a countrywide blockade.
He was brutally hacked and beaten up for half an hour, in the presence of police, by the ruling party men, who mistook him for a pro-opposition activist.
The incident was widely covered by the media and the killers were clearly identified through photographs and video footage. It raised an outcry over the credibility of the law enforcers in containing crimes committed by activists of the ruling party.
Eight accused are already in jail while four of them gave statements in the presence of magistrates.
Sixty people including two metropolitan magistrates Shahriar Mahmud Adnan and Erfan Ullah, a number of police officials and several local small traders have been made prosecution witnesses.
