Forced to confess to a crime he did not commit
Joj Mia yesterday narrated before a Dhaka court how he had been forced by three CID officials into confessing falsely that he took part in the August 21 grenade attack.
"I gave the confessional statement before a magistrate [in 2005] because the [then] CID officials threatened me with [death in] crossfire," he told the Speedy Trial Tribunal-1.
He identified the ex-CID officials in the dock -- Ruhul Amin, Abdur Rashid and Munshi Atiqur Rahman -- who had made up a story and falsely implicated him in the two cases filed in connection with the grenade explosions at a rally of the then opposition Awami League in 2004.
He was later cross-examined by the defence.
Meanwhile, a defence lawyer appealed to the court not to record his statement, saying the prosecution had set him up as a witness. But Judge Shahed Nuruddin did not pass any order on the plea.
Joj Mia's mother Jobeda Khatun and his sister Khorsheda Khatun had already given their statements before the court.
Accusing the ex-CID officials of harassing him, Joj Mia yesterday sought justice.
He used to earn a living by selling posters and cassettes near Gulistan Cinema Hall. In early June 2005, he went to his village home at Senbagh in Noakhali after he fell sick.
Officials of the Criminal Investigation Department arrested Joj at his home on June 10 of that year and took him to Senbagh Police Station.
"I asked them why they arrested me, but they did not give me any answer," Joj told the court.
Before he set up his small business in Gulistan, he along with one of his friends was arrested and jailed for two years in a criminal case.
Flanked by some police personnel, Abdur Rashid, the then assistant superintendent of police [ASP] in CID, entered the police station at noon on June 10.
"You threw the grenades at the Awami League rally," the then CID senior assistant superintendent of police Ruhul told Joj.
Taken by surprise, Joj replied, "I was at my Senbagh house on the day of the bomb explosions. I saw it on television at a tea stall."
From Senbagh, he was driven to the CID Malibagh office in Dhaka in a microbus.
At midnight, Joj was taken to Rashid's office.
"You threw the bombs on August 21," Rashid accused Joj.
"I did not. I know nothing about it," a hapless Joj replied.
"You will face crossfire if you do not confess," Rashid threatened and took him to the office of his supervising officer, Ruhul.
"Did you talk to him?" Ruhul asked Rashid.
"Sir, it will be better if you talk to him," Rashid said.
"See, there are many cases filed against you in the capital. There is an order from the high-ups. You will be benefited if you work according to our instructions. We will also be saved," Ruhul said.
"What do I need to do?" Joj asked at one stage.
"You imagine that this is your class. You will memorise what we say and do what we teach you," Ruhul told Joj who had studied only up to class-II.
Joj was kept at the CID office for a week. He was subsequently produced in court and placed on remand twice.
When he was on remand under CID, Ruhul, Rashid and Atiqur interrogated him several times. They asked him to memorise different stories they told him linking the grenade attack.
Rashid tortured Joj and threatened to make him a victim of a set-up crossfire incident and to kill his mother and sister as well.
The CID officials told him that he would be made an approver if he agreed to give a false confession.
Under such circumstances, Joj agreed to give the confessional statement.
The CID officials then trained him every day to get him prepared to say what they wanted him to say before the magistrate.
Joj tried to memorise the names of the top criminals the CID officials told him about linking them with the grenade attack. He was also told to confess that he was one among those involved.
He rehearsed before the CID officials what he would say to the magistrate. If he made any mistake in telling the story, they corrected him. This went on for around two weeks.
Then the day came. On June 26, 2005, Joj gave the made-up confessional statement before a magistrate in the presence of Atiqur and several other CID officials, which was a violation of the Criminal Procedure Code.
Joj ended up in Kashimpur jail.
Before the caretaker government assumed the state power, Atiqur along with four to five other law enforcers met him at the Jail.
"The then Rab Col Gulzar was present there," Joj said yesterday, adding that hearing from him of the torture in CID custody, the Rab official asked the CID officials, "How many innocent lives they ruined?"
Joj was released from jail after an investigation in 2007 by the then CID ASP Fazlul Kabir found no evidence of his involvement in the attack.
During a further probe in 2011, he spoke about the false confession he had been made to give and the reason behind it to the then investigation officer Abdul Kahar Akand of CID.
The three ex-CID officials this time were charged with derailing probe into the two grenade attack cases -- one for the killing and the other filed under the Explosive Substances Act.
The grisly grenade attack on the AL rally left 24 people, including Ivy Rahman, wife of late President Zillur Rahman, dead and more than 300 others injured. AL chief and the then opposition leader Sheikh Hasina narrowly survived the attack.
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