The cases -- one under the Arms Act and the other under the Explosive Substances Act -- were filed with Uttara Police Station on January 5.

The accused in the cases are Wahidul Islam, 20, Shafiqul Islam, 30, Hafez Ibrahim, 30, Abdullah Al Faruq, 21, and Hanif, 22.

The five pleaded not guilty and demanded justice after Judge Mohammad Rabiul Hassan of the Second Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court framed charges against them.

The Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) on March 30 pressed charges against the five JMB members, showing 36 people as prosecution witnesses.

The investigation officer dropped the name of Shakil alias Mollah Omar from the charge sheet as he was killed in a fight with the law enforcers in Comilla on March 12.

Raiding the house of Ruhul Amin Bhuiyan at Courtbari in Uttara in the capital on January 5, a Rab team seized 19 items of arms, explosives, books on jihad and bomb making materials and arrested Wahidul Islam, Shafiqul Islam and Hafez Ibrahim.

Following information squeezed out of them, Rab arrested Abdullah Al Faruq and Hanif.

Verdict of two cases against Sunny today

Another Dhaka court will deliver today judgement of two cases against JMB military commander Ataur Rahman Sunny and six others.

Judge Monzurul Bachhid of the Fourth Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court will pronounce the verdict at 11:30am, court sources said.

The cases, one under the Arms Act and another under the Explosive Substances Act, were filed with Sabujbagh Police Station on September 8 last year.

Earlier, the prosecution and the defence completed their arguments and the court recorded statements of 28 in three workdays that began on June 6.

The six other accused are AHM Shamim, 23, Zakaria alias Jewel, 21, Nur Azam Siddique alias Yeasir, 27, Belal Hossain alias Tamim, 21, Aleya Ferdous, 27, and Akramul Islam, 23.

Rab on September 8 last year arrested five of them at a house in East Bashabo, which Sunny rented to coordinate the August 17 countrywide serial blasts. Law enforcers believe the militant leader narrowly escaped arrest at that time.

At that house, Rab men seized a sawn off rifle, a revolver with a bullet, 700 capacitors, an electric blower, 60 CDs, 92 books and four audiocassettes on 'jihad', 17 masks made of black cloth, a computer set and other things.