Khaleda's ex-political secretary Harris Chowdhury implicated in Kibria murder

A supplementary chargesheet has been submitted accusing 35 people, including Khaleda Zia's former political secretary Harris Chowdhury and Sylhet Mayor Ariful Haq Chowdhury, in former finance minister Shah AMS Kibria's murder case.

Eleven people including Harris, Ariful and Habiganj Municipal Mayor Golam Kibria Gaus were included in the third supplementary chargesheet filed on Thursday.

Sylhet’s ASP Meherun Nesa Parul, who was assigned in 2012 to investigate the case, pressed charges at the court of Habiganj Sadar Judicial Magistrate.

Harris Chowdhury is already an accused in two sensitive cases involving Aug 21, 2004 grenade attack and Zia Charitable Trust corruption. Both cases are in progress while he is still on the run.

Central BNP leader Ariful Haq is also a member of the party’s Sylhet metropolitan unit convenor committee. He was elected mayor last year.

In his immediate response, he told bdnews24.com: “I heard that I have been named in the chargesheet. I was not involved in that incident. I also won’t say anything until I get a copy of the chargesheet.”

Gaus is the general secretary of the BNP’s Habiganj district unit. He is serving as Habiganj mayor for a second consecutive term.

Apart from naming 11 new people in the new chargesheet, the investigation officer also recommended dropping three of the accused as two of them had no address and the other died.

The other new suspects are Hafez Md Yahia, Maulana Sheikh Abdus Salam, Abdul Jalil, Sheikh Farid alias Maulana Shawkat Osman and Delwar Hossain Ripon.

Shah AMS Kibria was fatally wounded in a grenade attack on Jan 27, 2005 while returning from a rally in Habiganj Sadar. He died on way to Dhaka.

His nephew Shah Monjurul Huda, Awami League leaders Abdur Rahim, Abul Hossain and Siddique Ali were also killed and over 100 party activists injured in the attack.

Harris Chowdhury and Ariful Haq Chowdhury

The then general secretary of Habiganj Awami League unit, Abdul Majid Khan filed two cases over the attacks – one for the killings and the other under the Explosives Act -- the same night.

The cases' first investigation officer CID's ASP Munshi Atiqur Rahman pressed charges against 10 people on Mar 20 the same year.

On May 3 the following year, the plaintiff objected to the chargesheet at Sylhet Speedy Trial Tribunal but the court rejected his plea.

He on May 14 moved the High Court, which issued a rule asking why further investigations would not be done.

The government moved the Appellate Division for a hearing on the High Court order four days later but was refused.

However, CID's Assistant SP Rafiqul Islam was tasked with further investigations during the Fakhruddin Ahmed-led caretaker regime.

Islam accused 14 people, including former state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar and Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami, Bangladesh leader Mufti Hannan, in his chargesheet submitted on June 20, 2011.

But Kibria's wife Asma Kibria filed an objection to the chargesheet eight days later at the Habiganj court.

On Jan 5 the following year, Sylhet's Speedy Trial Tribunal accepted the objection plea and ASP Parul was made the third investigation officer to conduct further investigation.