Ramna Batamul Carnage: Justice in legal tangle

Some legal tangles have caused an unusual delay in hearing and disposal of the 2001 sensational Ramna Batamul carnage case at the High Court for nearly six years, as two separate HC benches have refused to deal with them for different reasons.

Besides, the attorney general's office has not extensively taken any move for expeditious hearing of the case's death reference and appeals, considering that an expected judgement may not come from the HC as there are serious weaknesses in the investigation and lack of evidence and documents.

Attorney General Mahbubey Alam, however, told The Daily Star on Sunday that his office will take a step for hearing and disposing of the death reference and appeals of the case after the court reopens.

All the courts across the country including the Appellate and HC divisions of the Supreme Court are now on holidays due to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.

The courts are scheduled to reopen on April 26.The attorney general said the hearing of the Ramna Batamul killing case might have been finished recently had the courts not gone into holidays.

He, however, refused to comment about the case's merit and possible result.

Contacted, Deputy Attorney General Dr Md Bashir Ahmed said an HC bench led by Justice Krishna Debnath is scheduled to ghold hearings on the death reference and appeals of the case.

Earlier, two separate HC benches had refused to hear the same matters for different reasons.

Attorney general's office sources said the investigation of the case was conducted carelessly during the regime of the then BNP-Jamat led alliance government. Also, the main accused Mufti Abdul Hannan has already been executed in connection with another criminal case.

There is no proper documents and evidence to prove the charges brought against the accused and therefore the state counsels are not all too serious about this case, said sources.

Contacted, Advocate SM Shahjahan, a defense lawyer of the case, could not say anything about the case proceedings.

If a lower court sentences any person to death, its judgement is examined by the HC through hearing arguments for confirmation of the death sentence. The case documents and judgement reaches as death references to the HC from the lower court within seven days after the latter delivers the verdict as per the relevant rules of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

Former DAG Moniruzzaman Rubel said another case filed under the explosive substances act in connection with the 2001 Ramna Batamul bomb blast is still pending with a Dhaka court.

The HC bench led by Justice M Enayetur Rahim had started hearing the death references and appeals of the Ramna case on January 8, 2017, and after hearing for several days it adjourned the hearing on February 22 the same year.

This bench dropped the matters from its cause-list on August 8, 2017, as the state side did not officially inform it about the execution of Mufti Hannan.

Later, the CJ assigned the HC bench led by Justice Md Ruhul Quddus to finish the hearing of the death references and appeals. But, this bench could not hear the case as it's hearing jurisdiction was reconstituted.

A Dhaka court on June 23, 2014 handed down death penalty to eight militants of Harkat-ul-Jihad (Huji), including its chief Mufti Abdul Hannan, for killing 10 people in the attack on a Chhayanaut event during the Pahela Baishakh celebrations at Ramna Batamul on April 14 in 2001.

Six other militants of the banned Islamist outfit were sentenced to life in prison for involvement in the blasts.