Ramna Batamul carnage: Legal tangles continue to delay hearing, case disposal

Legal tangles have continued to cause unusual delays in hearing and disposal of the sensational 2001 Ramna Batamul carnage case at the High Court for nearly six years, as three separate benches of the court have refused to deal with the case for different reasons.

Besides, the Attorney General's Office has not taken any extensive move for expeditious hearing of the death reference and appeals of the case considering that an expected judgement may not come from the High Court, as there are serious weaknesses in the investigation and lack of evidence and documents of the case.

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

All the courts across the country including the Appellate and High Court Divisions of the Supreme Court are now closed 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 carnage case could have been completed earlier if the courts had not closed in the nationwide shutdown.

Advocate Mahbubey Alam refused to make any comment about the merit of the case and its possible result.

Contacted, Deputy Attorney General Bashir Ahmed told our correspondent that a High Court bench led by Justice Krishna Debnath has dropped the death reference and appeals of the Ramna Batamul carnage case from its cause-list a few months back, as there was no state counsel before the bench for moving them.

The bench has sent the material to the chief justice for a decision, the DAG said, adding that the chief justice is yet to assign any other bench for hearing them.

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

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

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

Mufti Abdul Hannan, one of the country's most notorious militants, was executed on April 13, 2017 at Kashimpur High Security Prison for carrying out a grenade attack on the then British High Commissioner Anwar Choudhury in Sylhet on May 21, 2004.

Some other accused in that case are still absconding.