Erfan Salim cleared in arms case

A Dhaka tribunal yesterday cleared Mohammad Erfan Salim, son of Awami League leader and lawmaker Haji Mohammad Salim, in an arms case as the police did not find any evidence to prove the charges against him and the prosecution did not seek further investigation.

Judge KM Emrul Kayesh of the Special Tribunal-1 in Dhaka passed the order after a short hearing on the probe report that cleared Erfan.

Officials of Rapid Action Battalion, after a raid on Erfan's Chawkbazar house on October 26 last year, told reporters that they seized five bottles of foreign liquor and an unlicensed pistol with two bullets from Erfan, while 406 yaba tablets and an illegal pistol with four bullets were also recovered from his bodyguard Zahidul Mollah.

Chawkbazar police submitted the probe reports in the arms and drug cases to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court of Dhaka on January 5.

In their final reports, Chawkbazar police said they did not find any evidence to prove the charges against Erfan in two cases filed under the narcotics control and arms acts. The investigation officer also appealed to the court to clear Erfan in the cases.

But Erfan cannot walk out of jail as he is yet to secure bail in two other cases filed in October last year, his lawyer Pran Nath told The Daily Star.

One of them is a narcotics case and the other is an attempted murder case. In the attempted murder case, police found evidence to prove the charges.

The date for taking the next course of action about the final report in the narcotics case is yet to be fixed, court sources said.

Erfan's bodyguard Zahidul, however, was charged with possession of an illegal firearm and narcotics.

Erfan was arrested after a case was filed against him on charges of attacking Lt Wasif Ahmed Khan of Bangladesh Navy in the capital's Dhanmondi area on October 25 last year.

Following the "attack", Rab conducted a drive on Haji Salim's house on Debidas Lane.  A mobile court of Rab on the same day handed six months' imprisonment to Erfan for keeping walkie-talkies illegally and six months for possessing illegal alcohol.

On February 11 this year, Sub-Inspector Mominul Haque of the Detective Branch of police submitted the charge sheet to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court of Dhaka against Erfan, Zahidul, chauffeur Mizanur Rahman, protocol officer of Madina Group AB Siddique Dipu and their associate Kazi Ripon in the case filed over the assault and attempted murder of the navy officer.