Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) has dropped the names of nine Jubo League activists as it pressed charges against 12 people, including 11 Jubo League men, for killing party leader Riazul Haque Khan Milky last year.
Milky, who was the organising secretary of the Dhaka city (south) unit of Jubo League, was gunned down in the capital’s Gulshan area on July 30.
Md Kajemur Rashid, assistant superintendent of police (ASP) of RAB 1 who investigated the case, submitted the charge sheet to the Court of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate in Dhaka yesterday.
The charge-sheeted accused are SM Zahid Siddique alias Tarek, Shakhawat Hossain Chanchal, Fahima Islam Lopa, M Jahangir Mondal, M Shahidul Islam, Aminul Islam Habib, Sohel Mahmud, M Chunnu Mia, Mohammad Arif, Ibrahim Khalilullah, Rafiqul Islam Chowdhury and M Sharif Uddin Chowdhury.
Fahima is the wife of Maruf Reza Sagar, a close aide of Milky.
In the charge sheet, 26 people were named as prosecution witnesses and the investigation officer dropped the names of Wahidul Alam Arif, Tuhinur Rahman, Syed Mostafa Ali, Rashed Mahmud, Saiful Islam, Sujon Howladar, Jahidul Islam Tipu, Dr Dewan M Farid uddin and Mahabubul Haque Hirok from the charge sheet as charges brought against them were not primarily proved.
In his reaction, Kayser Milky, brother of the victim, told the Dhaka Tribune over phone: “We will not accept the charge sheet. They [RAB] deliberately scrapped some names as a vested interests quarter is trying to weaken the case.”
The names of Wahidul, the general secretary of Jubo League’s city South unit, and Jahidul, general secretary of Motijheel unit Awami League, were dropped from the charges.
“Jahidul planned my brother’s murder. Wahedul was around the spot while the plan was executed. We assume that those whose names have been dropped were also involved in the murder,” he said.
The investigation officer pressed the charge sheet under sections 302, 212, 34 and 109 of the Penal Code. He also submitted 16 rounds of bullet shells, CCTV camera footage showing the murder incident and other evidence of the killing.
He sought court’s order to issue warrants for the fugitives’ arrest.
Of the accused, Jahangir Mondal, M Shahidul Islam, Aminul Islam Habib, Sohel Mahmud, M Chunnu Mia are in jail while the rest six are on the run.
Among the accused Aminul, Lopa, Sohel, Chunnu, Jahangir gave confessional statements before the court under 164 of the CrPC on different dates.
It was mentioned in the charge sheet that Milky was gunned down by his close associate Tarek who was also joint secretary of the unit in front of Shoppers World at Gulshan.
According to the charge sheet, Tarek killed Milky over political conflict and to establish supremacy in Motijheel area.
The charge sheet also reads that Tarek, Aminul, Mahmud, Arif, Chunnu, Shakhawat directly participated in the killing mission led by Tarek while Lopa, Shahidul, Jahangir, Rafik, Ibrahim and Sharif aided and abetted the killers.
Of the accused, the RAB arrested prime accused Tarek from a hospital at Uttara hours after the killing. But he was killed in a “shootout” with Rab members on August 1.
Milky’s brother Major Rashedul Haque Khan filed the murder case with Gulshan Police Station on the day of murder.
