Chittagong, Mar 15 (bdnews24.com) – Then state minister for home affairs Lutfozzaman Babar had influenced investigation into the sensational 10-truck arms haul case, the then chief of the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence told a Chittagong Court on Thursday.
Maj Gen (retd) Sadek Hassan Rumi told the Senior Special Tribunal-1 as a witness that then director of the intelligence agency Rezzakul Haider Chowdhury had been included in a committee to investigate the arms haul incident following pressure from Babar.
BNP-led four-party alliance government had formed a five-member committee, headed by them home secretary Omar Faruq, to probe the incident taking place on April 1, 2004.
Rumi said he, along with Babar, had visited the seized 10 truck-loads of weapons and ammunition in the port city's Dampara Police Lines on April 2 noon in 2004, a day after the police had seized those from the Chittagong Urea Fertiliser Limited (CUFL) jetty.
"After the visit, Babar called a meeting and said a committee would be formed to investigate the incident. He also asked me to be away from the investigation," he said.
"In the meeting, I realised that it was not an ordinary smuggling case… High officials might be involved with the incident," he added.
The former DGFI chief said that he had informed the then prime minister Khaleda Zia on Apr 3 after visiting the arms cache.
"Khaleda Zia also told me that a committee would be formed to investigate the incident," he said adding that the former prime minister had directed him to name a representative in the probe body.
"At noon that day, Babar called me and asked me to include Rezzakul in the committee. I requested him to nominate anyone else. Following his continuous pressure, I nominated Rezzakul as the representative to the committee to probe the incident," he said.
Rezzakul had been made the director general of the National Security Intelligence (NSI) later and was arrested in the case.
"Rezzakul didn't even inform me about the progress in the case," Rumi said.
Rumi told the court that when he visited the spot, some of the field-level officials of DGFI had suggested that some NSI officials, including Rezzakul, might have been involved in the incident.
"DGFI officials told me that Rezzakul had connection with Indian separatist outfit United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) leader Paresh Barua," Rumi said.
Judge S M Mujibur Rahman adjourned the hearing until Apr 3 after the counsel of Rezzakul, Qamrul Islam Sajjad, started to cross-examine the witness.
The police filed two cases -- one under arms law and the other for smuggling -- in connection with the arms haul incident.
bdnews24.com/mc/shs/ost/ssr/2345h
