Mother seeks justice for son's harassment

The mother of petty criminal Joj Mia, who was falsely implicated in the August 21 grenade attack cases, appeared before a Dhaka court yesterday and sought justice for the harassment of her son.

Jobeda Khatun broke down in tears as she gave deposition to Dhaka Speedy Trial Tribunal-1 for more than one and a half hours.

She identified two ex-CID officials in the dock -- Ruhul Amin and Abdur Rashid -- who had cooked up a story and falsely implicated Joj Mia in the two cases. They had kept contact with Jobeda after Joj Mia's arrest.

The duo along with another ex-CID official Munshi Atiqur Rahman have been charged with derailing probe in the two grenade attack cases.

Accusing them of harassing her son, Jobeda sought punishment to the former CID officials.

Later, she was cross-examined by the counsels for several accused in the cases. She will be cross-examined again tomorrow.

Joj Mia, who used to sell posters and cassettes near the Gulistan cinema, went to his village home at Senbagh in Noakhali in June 2005 after he was taken ill.

Officials of the Criminal Investigation Department arrested Joj Mia from his home on June 10 morning. He was then taken to Senbagh Police Station.

"I asked them why they arrested my son, but they did not give any answer," Jobeda told the court.

In the afternoon on the same day, the CID brought Joj Mia to Dhaka for interrogation.

Several days later, law enforcers from Senbagh Police Station along with Mokshed Chowkidar visited Jobeda, and asked her to come to Dhaka, she said in the statement.   

Jobeda then came to Dhaka to find her son, but faced difficulties in getting information about his whereabouts.

While staying at a relative's house in Mirpur, she came to know that her son was kept at Kashimpur prison in Gazipur.

Jobeda then went to the prison, but the jail authorities didn't allow her to meet her son.

They asked her to produce them a court order with permission to meet the prisoner.

She then obtained a court order and finally met her son.

Joj Mia was later found innocent and released from jail after around three years.   

A grisly grenade attack on an Awami League rally left 24 people, including Ivy Rahman, wife of late president Zillur Rahman, dead and more than 300 others injured on August 21, 2004. AL chief and the then opposition leader Sheikh Hasina survived the attack.

Following the incident, Motijheel police filed two cases -- one for the killing and the other under the Explosive Substances Act.