HC asks 3 lifers, another to surrender before court

The High Court has directed four accused of Commodore (retd) Ghulam Rabbani killing case to surrender to the trial court in eight weeks.

The HC passed the order in a full judgement which was released on Tuesday, court sources said. The Daily Star collected a copy of the judgement yesterday.

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Rabbani, a former managing director of Korean Export Processing Zone (KEPZ) and a former aide-de-camp of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was shot in the throat by criminals at Muradpur in Chittagong on his way to the KEPZ on April 11, 2004.

Thirteen days later, Rabbani, who also had been a vital prosecution witness in both the Bangabandhu murder and the jail killing cases, succumbed to his injuries at Bumrungrad Hospital in Bangkok.

Rabbani was killed following a conflict between him and a few of his colleagues at the KEPZ over his appointment as its MD, and termination of two employees of the KEPZ before and after his appointment.

The four accused are former general manager of the KEPZ Abu Naser Chowdhury, its former chief security officer Humayun Kabir Chowdhury, Md Salim and Saiful Islam alias Bilai Saiful.

Naser, Humayun and Salim have been sentenced to life term imprisonment and Saiful's acquittal has been cancelled by the HC on February 12, 2014 for killing Rabbani.

In the full verdict, the HC said convicts Humayun, Naser and Salim, who are on bail, have been directed to surrender before the trial court within eight weeks from the date of receipt of this judgement to serve out their respective sentences.

“Resultantly the conviction of accused Humayun Kabir Chowdhury and Abu Naser Chowdhury under section 120B/302 of the Penal Code is hereby affirmed but their sentences are enhanced to suffer imprisonment for life with a fine of Tk 50,000 instead of five years,” it said.

Besides, conviction of Salim by a speedy trial tribunal in Chittagong is hereby affirmed, said the HC bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Akram Hossain Chowdhury in the verdict.

The judges, however, said they scrapped the lower court judgement of Bilai Saiful's acquittal. “The trial court is directed to pass a fresh judgment in light of the observations made in the body of this (HC) judgment.”

“We are of the view that learned judge of the Druta Bichar Tribunal rightly and lawfully found Abu Naser Chowdhury and Humayun Kabir guilty for committing murder of the deceased under section 120B/302 of the Penal Code.

However, the learned judge has committed an error in awarding lesser sentence to accused Abu Naser and Humayun Kabir; the learned judge awarded an inadequate sentence of five years against them having though there is a provision of capital punishment or imprisonment for life under section 120B of the Penal Code for the same offence,” the judges observed.

They said, “In view of the evidence, facts and circumstances as remained in the case and the discussions made herein above, we are in a considered view that the said punishment awarded by the trial court should have to be altered and enhanced.”

The Druta Bichar Tribunal, Chittagong in April, 2005 gave five years' imprisonment to Naser and Humayun, life term imprisonment to Selim, Mohammad Hashim and Abdul Malik Sohel, and acquitted Saiful.

The same year, the convicts appealed to the HC against the verdict while the government filed two revision petitions seeking death penalty for the accused.

Hashim had been acquitted earlier while Sohel was acquitted on February 12, 2014 by the HC.