Harris Chy among 9 charged with Kibria murder
Harris Chy among 9 charged with Kibria murder
Nine people including BNP leader Harris Chowdhury have been accused in a supplementary charge sheet in the Awami League leader and former finance minister AMS Kibria case.
Meherunnesa Parul, assistant superintendent of police of the Criminal Investigation Department submitted the charge sheet to the Habiganj District and Sessions Judge’s Court this afternoon, reports the Bangla daily Prothom Alo.
The other accused include former Habiganj mayor Golam Kibria Gaus and Sylhet Mayor Ariful Haque Chowdhury. Charges of bomb blasts and killings have been brought against them.
BACKGROUND
Kibria along with four others was killed in a grenade attack on a rally at Baidyer Bazar in Habiganj on January 27, 2005.
The day after the grenade attack, Abdul Mazid Khan, organising secretary of Habiganj district AL, filed two cases -- one for murder and the other under the Explosive Substances Act -- with Habiganj Sadar Police Station.
But the trial in the two cases has not begun even nine years after the filing of the cases.
Parul was appointed Investigation officer (IO) in the cases in January 2012.
During the BNP-led government's tenure in 2005, the home ministry assigned Munshi Atiqur Rahman of the CID as the IO in the two cases.
He submitted a charge sheet on March 20, 2005, accusing 10 people, including local BNP activists, of involvement in the attack.
Sylhet Divisional Speedy Trial Tribunal Judge Biplab Goswami accepted the charge sheet but couldn't start trial as the complainant filed a no confidence petition with the court.
As the tribunal rejected the petition, the complainant sought time for lodging a petition with the High Court for a stay on the proceedings. And the tribunal granted the petitioner 10 days.
Upon an appeal by the complainant, the HC on May 5, 2006 stayed the proceedings.
Following another appeal by the complainant, the Sylhet tribunal on May 14, 2006 ordered further probe into the cases.
And in line with that order, the CID appointed Assistant Superintendent of Police Rafiqul Islam as the new IO.
Rafiqul submitted a supplementary charge sheet to a Habiganj magistrate's court on June 20, 2011, naming 14 more people, including Lutfozzaman Babar, ex-state minister for home, and Mufti Abdul Hannan, chief of banned militant outfit Huji, as accused in the cases.
A week later, Asma filed a petition with the Habiganj court expressing no confidence in the investigation. The court then forwarded the case documents and the petition to the Sylhet Divisional Speedy Trial Tribunal.
Following two petitions by Asma and the tribunal prosecutor, tribunal Judge Dilip Kumar Debnath on January 5, 2012 ordered the CID to carry out further probe by a senior officer.