Narayanganj 7-murder trial concludes, court fixes date for verdict

The court has fixed Jan 16 to deliver its verdict on cases filed over the murder of seven people, including a city councillor and a senior lawyer in Narayanganj.

District and Sessions Judge Syed Enayet Hossain scheduled the verdict on Wednesday after arguments ended in the two cases.

Thirty five persons, including former officers of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), have been charged with involvement in the murders.

During the trial of the sensational 2014 murders, the prosecution pleaded for the maximum penalty while the defence counsels sought acquittal claiming their clients were innocent.

On the afternoon of Apr 27, 2014, City Councillor Nazrul Islam and five of his associates were abducted from their car on Dhaka-Narayanganj Link Road.

Around the same time and from the same location, senior lawyer Chandan Kumar Sarkar and his driver, who were in another car, were kidnapped.

Three days later, their bloated bodies were found floating in the Shitalakkhya River.

Relatives of Islam and Sarkar filed two separate cases over the murders.

The slain councillor’s family claimed that another councillor Nur Hossain had paid senior officers of the local RAB unit Tk 60 million to carry out the murders.

Both Islam and Nur Hossain belonged to the ruling Awami League.

After the investigation, which took almost a year, police pressed charges against Nur Hossain, three senior officers of the Narayanganj-based RAB battalion and 31 others.

Nur Hossain had fled immediately after the killings, but was detained in India’s Kolkata and brought back to Bangladesh 17 months later.

Twenty three suspects including senior RAB officers – Tarek Sayeed Mohamad, Arif Hossain and MM Rana -- are now in police custody.

Out of the 12 absconding, eight were members of the Narayanganj-based RAB 11.

Public prosecutor Wazed Ali Khokon said on Wednesday that the court had heard 164 witnesses produced by them and 60 of those were eye witnesses.