Dead in The Dock: ICT asks IGP, SP to explain 'negligence'
The International Crimes Tribunal-1 yesterday asked the IGP and SP of Mymensingh to explain police's “blatant inefficiency and negligence” in communicating timely the death of a fugitive war crimes accused, which led to his indictment after death.
Mymensingh Superintendent of Police Syed Nurul Islam was summoned before the tribunal on February 16 with a written explanation on his negligence and inaction regarding the matter.
The inspector general of police was asked to explain in writing the cause of delay and negligence found in executing a warrant issued by the tribunal for the arrest of the accused.
Justice Md Shahinur Islam and Justice Md Shohrowardi passed the orders following a plea moved by prosecutors Rana Dasgupta and Hrishikesh Saha.
Fugitive accused Wazuddin, of Mymensingh's Phulbaria upazila, died of “old-age complications” on May 7 last year.
But police didn't inform the tribunal of the matter until January 12 after a media report brought the matter to the fore.
The “unusual delay and negligence on part of the superintendent of police” in informing the tribunal of Wazuddin's death led it to frame charges against him in absentia since the prosecution, on the basis of an earlier police report, pressed formal charges identifying him as a fugitive.
On January 11 this year, a private TV channel ran a report that more than six months after his death, the tribunal indicted Wazuddin, appointed a state defence counsel and fixed January 31 to record testimonies of prosecution witnesses.
The following day, the tribunal came down heavily on the prosecution, investigation agency and police for giving it wrong information. On the same day, the Mymensingh SP sent a report to the tribunal's registrar's office on Wazuddin's death.
The tribunal, in its yesterday's order, said the document that the SP sent showed that the office-in-charge of Phulbaria police informed him about Wazuddin's death on August 22 last year.
But the SP “remained gravely negligent and mum for about five long months” and then sent the report when charges had already been framed against Wazuddin and a report run on the matter, the court said.
The death of the fugitive accused should have been communicated immediately to the investigation agency, prosecution and the tribunal after the OC sent the report.
The enforcement agencies must keep it in mind that the tribunal is a “special judicial forum meant to prosecute, try and punish” the perpetrators of 1971 crimes.
So, they “should have acted and responded to comply with the directives of the tribunal effectively, properly, promptly and with due attention,” said the tribunal.
It dropped the name of Wazuddin from the case and cancelled the appointment of Gazi MH Tamim as state defence counsel.
February 16 was set to record the prosecution's opening statement with Riaz Uddin Fakir as the lone accused in the case.
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