Trial of Papia, her husband begins

The trial of an arms case filed against expelled leader of Jubo Mohila League Shamima Nur Papia and her husband Mofizur Rahman began yesterday at a  Dhaka tribunal with deposition of a prosecution witness.

Judge KM Emrul Kayesh of the Special Tribunal-1 of Dhaka recorded the statement of Sub-inspector Md Saiful Islam of Rapid Action Battalion-1, who prepared a seizure-list of the arms case.

After the court recorded his statement, defence lawyer sought time to cross-examine the witness. The tribunal then fixed today for cross-examination.

In his statement, the witness told the court that on February 23, a team of Rab including him raided Papia's Indira Road house in Farmgate and recovered a foreign pistol, two magazines, 20 bullets, five bottles of foreign liquor, Tk 58,41,000 in cash, and credit and debit cards of different banks.

Later, he prepared a seizure list in front of the witnesses, Saiful added.

Before that, Papia, her husband -- a former Chhatra League leader -- and their two accomplices were arrested from Dhaka's Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on February 22 when they were trying to leave the country.

Rab members recovered seven passports, Tk 2,12,270, fake notes worth Tk 25,600, $11,481, 420 Sri Lankan rupees, 301 Indian rupees, and two debit cards from their possession.