64 BCL, Jubo League men charged

Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) yesterday pressed supplementary charges against 64 Bangladesh Chhatra League and Jubo League men over a double murder in the city in 2013.

The accused include former Jubo League central leader Helal Akbar Chowdhury Babar, former Chhatra League central leader Saiful Islam Limon, and former president of dissolved CU BCL unit Alamgir Tipu.

PBI's Inspector Mohammed Jahangir, also the investigation officer (IO) of the case, submitted the charge sheet to the Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC) Nirmalendu Bikash Chawakrabarty.

The initial charge sheet was submitted by Inspector Atik Ahmed Chowdhury of the Detective Branch of Chittagong Metropolitan Police in November 2015.

The probe found that supporters of Babar engaged in a gunfight with supporters of Limon in CRB area of the porty city on June 2013 over submission of a railway tender.

Two people, including a minor boy, were killed in the incident. They are Amran Hossain, 8, a slum dweller, and Jubo League activist Saju Palit, 25, of Nandankanan.

Jubo League and BCL men, led by Babar and Limon, went there to submit the tender involving Tk 1.5 crore for renovation works of a railway office and level-crossings in Feni and Comilla.

The gunfight left Amran dead on the spot. Saju died of his wounds at Chittagong Medical College Hospital.

Limon is blessed by Chittagong city Mayor AJM Nasir Uddin, and Babar was loyall to late mayor ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury. Sub-inspector Mohibur Rahman of Kotwali Police Station on the same day filed a murder case against 87 people with the station.

Cops on that day picked up Limon and his 22 aides in the port city. Babar with his four supporters was arrested in Dhaka on June 26 that year. Following the incident, Babar and Limon were expelled from Jubo League and BCL. The two were later freed from jail on bail. The investigation officer said of the 87 accused, 26 were not charged. Besides, 37 were named as witnesses.