The fate of former finance minister Shah AMS Kibria murder case has become uncertain as the investigation agency is yet to wrap up the probe nine years into the killing in a grenade attack.
Police say they have found nothing new in the new probe that began two years back.
Family members of the Awami League leader and other four people who were killed in the attack in 2005 see no ray of hope as the trial was yet to begin.
The case has been dealt by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of Police since 2005. So far, the CID pressed two charge sheets. But the aggrieved family of Kibria filed no-confidence petitions against the first charge sheet and also the supplementary charge sheet terming those “incomplete and ill-motivated.”
In the petition against the second charge sheet in 2011, wife of the former finance minister Asma Kibria had complained that the names of many bigwigs had been missing.
Then chief of Directorate General of Forces Intelligence Maj Gen (retd) Sadik Hasan Rumi, several military officers and leaders of the BNP-Jamaat coalition government were involved in the murder, the petition said.
Kibria was killed in a grenade attack on a rally at Baidyer Bazar in Habiganj on January 27, 2005. His nephew Shah Manzur Huda, and local AL leaders Abdur Rahim, Abul Hossain and Siddique Ali were also killed in the attack.
The current investigation officer of the case, Assistant Police Superintendent Meherunnessa, was tasked two years back. Yesterday she told the Dhaka Tribune that they had found nothing new in the latest investigation.
She also said they had no idea when they would finally prepare the charge sheet as the investigation had been underway. “The new monitoring cell for sensational cases will be formed soon and the investigation will be wrapped up through the cell,” the official said.
Meherunnesa also said they had found no involvement of Maj Gen (retd) Sadik in the incident. They interrogated several military officials but got no clue.
“We told the victims’ family members to give us proof against them. But they did not. We talked with the Habiganj people and the witnesses. But they did not co-operate with us,” she alleged.
Asked whether the third-time investigation was a failed one, she replied in the negative.
When contacted, conducting lawyer of the victims Alamgir Bhuiya Babul said the IO was responsible for the delay in pressing charge sheet.
Habiganj district AL Organising Secretary Abdul Mazid Khan MP, also the plaintiff of the case, said the government would finish the trial after new monitoring cell was formed.
Looking back
Mazid filed two cases a day after the attack with Habiganj sadar police station and the home ministry assigned CID’s Munshi Atiqur Rahman as the investigation officer of the cases.
In April 2005, a government-formed high-powered committee submitted its report accusing 10 people including some grassroots BNP leaders and activists of the murders.
The Sylhet Divisional Speedy Trial Tribunal started the trial through framing of charges against the accused. But following an appeal for further investigation by the complainant, the High Court stayed the proceedings.
A further investigation was launched during the past caretaker government rule. The CID on June 20, 2011 pressed the charges against 14 more people, including former state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar and Harkat-ul-Jihad (Huji) leader Mufti Abdul Hannan.
Asma Kibria filed another no-confidence petition and a court ordered further investigation on January 5, 2012 which is under process.
