HC says police can further probe Narayanganj seven-murder case if needed

Police can, if needed, conduct further investigations in a case even after the submission of the chargesheet, the High Court has ruled.

Court CorrespondentSupreme bdnews24.com
Published : 14 Dec 2015, 06:26 AM
Updated : 14 Dec 2015, 11:37 AM

The court decision came on Monday on a petition demanding additional inquiry into the Narayanganj seven-murder case.

The bench of justices M Enayetur Rahim and Amir Hossain has ended all speculations on legal points regarding the possibility of further investigation or interrogation of the accused in this incident.

The High Court said the trial court has no bar to taking into cognisance if anyone new is accused of being involved in the crime in line with Section 120B of Bangladesh Penal Code.

In addition, it ruled, police have the right to investigate more if a fresh suspect is accused of being involved in the planning of the crime, even after the chargesheet has been filed in a case.

The law-enforcers will need no permission to investigate or submit a progress report.

Selina Islam Beauty, the widow of slain Narayanganj City Corporation councillor Nazrul Islam, evidently dissatisfied with the chargesheet, appealed to the court last month seeking fresh investigations.

A Narayanganj court had dismissed her objections to the chargesheet police submitted in April, nearly a year after the murders.

The same High Court bench had observed on Dec 1 that the chargesheet was indeed flawed, an argument plaintiff Beauty had maintained all along.

Although it pointed to the shortcomings, the court stressed that the case must not be allowed to drag on under the pretext of further investigation.

On Monday, the court noted that by ‘flaws’ it had meant the missing Penal Code section in the chargesheet.

In April 2014, Nazrul Islam and his four associates along with senior lawyer Chandan Kumar Sarker and his driver were abducted and killed.

Beauty had filed the case, accusing another councillor, Siddhirganj Awami League leader Nur Hossain, and six other persons of being behind the crime.

Nazrul’s family also alleged that several RAB officers, too, were involved and Hossain had paid them Tk 60 million to carry out the abductions and murders.

An internal investigation by the elite police unit had also found the involvement of some of its men in the crime.

Police on Apr 8 this year submitted the chargesheet in court, accusing 35 people, including Hossain and the sacked RAB officers.

They, however, dropped the names of five people named in the initial complaint, prompting Beauty to raise an objection in the local court.

But after her plea was dismissed, she moved the High Court.

The five who had been dropped are Siddhirganj Awami League General Secretary Yasin Mia, Hasmat Ali Hasu, Aminul Islam Raju, Anwar Hossain Ashik and Iqbal Hossain.

Three RAB officers - Tarek Sayeed Mohammad, MM Rana and Arif Hossain - now removed from the elite force, were arrested following a High Court order.

Barring these three, the other accused who are currently behind bars are Nur Hossain, Mortuza Zaman Churchill, Ali Mohammad, Mizanur Rahman Dipu, Raham Ali and Abul Basar; RAB member SI Purnendu Bala, ASIs Bojlur Rahman and Abul Kalam Azad, habilders Emdadul Haque and Nasir Uddin, constables Shihab Uddin and Babul Hassan, ROG-1 Arif Hossain, lance nayeks Hira Mia and Belal Hossain, Lance Corporal Ruhul Amin, and sepoys Abu Tayeb, Nuruzzaman, and Asaduzzaman Nur.

RAB Sergeant Emanul Kabir, ASI Kamal Hossain, Corporal Mokhlechur Rahman, soldiers Abdul Alim, Mohiuddin Munshi, Al Amin Sharif, and Tajul Islam, and Constable Habibur Rahman are still on the run.

Nur Hossain's accomplice  Selim, of Bandar Upazila’s Kuriparha, is currently detained in an Indian jail.

The principal accused, Nur Hossain, a councillor of Narayanganj City’s Ward No 4 at the time of the abductions and murders, had denied any involvement in the crime and then had fled to India.

But he was brought back to Bangladesh last month.

After a Narayanganj court sent him to jail, many relatives of the seven-murder victims had demanded further probe in the case and police remand for Hossain in order to get to the bottom of the incident.

But police are yet to make any move since the court has already accepted charges in the case.