'Top criminals' to walk free as witnesses fail to appear before court for years

'Top criminals' are likely to get scot-free as witnesses have failed to appear before the court for years in another case of apparent ‘travesty of justice’.

Prokash Biswas, Court Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 14 Jan 2017, 04:15 PM
Updated : 14 Jan 2017, 04:15 PM

Last year ‘killer Abbas' walked free in similar circumstances and this time three other murder accused – Sanjidul Hasan Emon, Tarik Sayeed Mamun and Al Mamun Munshi are on verge of walking free as witnesses have failed to show up in nearly 100 hearing dates.

Abdur Rahim, 33, a fast food vendor, was allegedly killed by the trio, listed by police as 'top criminals', in 1999.

Victim's brother, Md Tarek, lodged a case following which only seven out of 13 witnesses appeared before the court between 2004 and 2010.

Since then even the plaintiff failed to turn in nearly 100 hearing days assigned by the court during when the case changes hands of four to five judges.

Currently, the case awaits decision before Dhaka's Fifth Special Judge's Court.

According to case dossier available from the court, the prosecution failed to present even the plaintiff at court on Aug 8 last year, prompting Judge Md Akhtaruzzaman to once again assign Dec 27 as the next date for hearing.

Court clerk Mokarram Hussain however failed to say if the judge had assigned a new date or not.

Hussain however revealed that of the accused only Mamun is now in jail. The other two, Emon and Munshi, are absconding.

Under the circumstances, Mamun is likely to be released.

The lawyers for the accused, Sayed Ahmed Gazi or Muslem Uddin, chose to remain tightlipped on the issue.

The State side at court and the police prosecution wing also reportedly do not have much information to explain the bizarre turn of events.

'Killer Abbas' released

Accused in the 1999 murder of Juba League leader Ataur Rahman Azad and in the 2001 shooting to death of rice trader Ishak Ahmed Dulal, infamous miscreant Abbas alias 'Killer Abbas' was released from jail last year due to lack of enough evidence.

Interestingly, the State lawyer did not even know about the release.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police (Prosecution) Deputy Commissioner Anisur Rahman, when asked about it, said he could not speak on the issue without going through documents related to the case.