Nearly 13 years after filing, the prosecution yesterday finally finished placing arguments in the 2001 Ramna Batamul bomb blast cases.
Earlier, it took the state side nearly five and a half years to finally wrap up the submission of deposition of the 67 out of a total of 84 of its witnesses and move onto argument placement.
Additional Public Prosecutor SM Zahid Sarder, who started placing arguments on February 3, told the Dhaka Tribune that the verdict in the cases might be delivered next month.
Zahid also said the prosecution had proved all the allegations and would seek capital punishment against the accused.
There are allegations that the prosecution has not been sincere enough to produce witnesses before the court on time, resulting in the delay.
On the other hand, many witnesses have allegedly not responded to repeated calls for appearing before the court and give their statements.
Sources said it was common for prosecutions to take “unnecessarily” long time to move on with sensitive cases like those filed in connection with the Ramna blasts.
The cases also saw investigation officers change six times, the last of whom pressed charge sheets in November 2008, seven years after the deadly bomb blasts in the Bangla new year’s gathering in the capital’s Ramna Park on April 14, 2001.
The blasts for which banned Islamist militant outfit Harkat-ul-Jihad al Islami (HuJI) has been largely blamed, killed 10 and injured scores others who had gathered at the city centre for the traditional new year celebrations.
Soon after the blasts and the casualties, police filed two cases with the capital’s Ramna police station – one for murder and the other one for illegal possession of explosives.
The charge sheet that CID Inspector and the sixth investigator Abu Hena Mohammad Yusuf filed, accused 14 people, including HuJI chief Mufti Abdul Hannan and 13 of his associates.
One of them – Moulana Tajuddin – is a brother of BNP leader Abdus Salam Pintu. Tajuddin and four other accused have been absconding. Police have the remaining eight accused in custody including Hannan. Tajuddin’s name was not included in the initial case statements.
When asked what took the investigators so long to press charges, assistant PP Zahid told the Dhaka Tribune that the cases proceeded at snail’s pace during the tenure of the BNP-Jamaat-led government because all the accused had strong connections with the then government ranks.
He also said many of the accused had threatened him for his life right in front of the judge when the prosecution witnesses had been deposing over the last five years.
“We will deal with you [Zahid] when the BNP comes to power,” Zahid quoted one of the accused as saying.
Of the accused, one Moulana Akbar Hossain had been out since 2001 after securing bail from the High Court. Yesterday Dhaka’s Second Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge Ruhul Amin cancelled his bail and ordered for him to be sent to jail following a plea from the prosecution.
The prosecution argued that since Akbar was a member of militant group HuJI, it was particularly important to bring him back behind the bars.
Yesterday, Akbar’s lawyer began placing argument in his favour after the prosecution finished placing its arguments. The court then fixed February 13 for further hearing of defence arguments.
