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Published : 17 Apr 2014, 06:11 PM
The bench of justices Md Abdul Hye and Krishna Debnath delivered the verdict on Thursday after hearing the convicts’ appeals.
A microbus carrying several Bangladesh Chhatra League leaders, on their way to attend a rally in 2000, was ambushed at Bahaddarhat.
Investigators said Islami Chhatra Shibir activists were responsible for the attack which left five men dead on the spot.
Two others died later in hospital. Four of them survived.
A taxi-driver was also killed in the attack. This incident came to be known as ‘eight-murder’.
The acquitted men, all of whom are Shibir activists, are Sazzad Hossain Khan, Alamgir Kabir Manik, Azam and Md Solaiman.
A Chittagong court sentenced the four men to death in 2008. They moved the High Court challenging the verdict and got the acquittal on Thursday.
Lawyers are saying the acquittal came because there were no eyewitnesses to the shooting.
The High Court, however, did not mention anything about the three absconding convicts who were given life term at the trial court. State counsels said their sentences would not change.
The counsels also said they would appeal against the acquittal.
The three who were given life term are Enamul Haque, Abdul Qayum Chowdhury Rimon and Habib Khan.
The murders caused a stir as the Awami League, of which Chhatra League is the student wing, was in power at the time.
The Chhatra League members who were killed were Hasibur Rahman Helal, Rafiqul Islam Sohag, Jahangir Hossain, Azizul Islam Babu and driver ‘Monu’.
Abul Kashem, Jahangir Alam and Jahid Hossain died in hospital. They were heading to a Chhatra League event in Baklia, Chittagong.
