Ex-NSI DG implicated under govt pressure: Defence lawyer
The fifth and last investigation officer (IO) of the Chittagong arms haul cases implicated former National Security Intelligence (NSI) director general (DG) Brig Gen Abdur Rahim under pressure from the present government, claimed Abdur Rahim's lawyer yesterday.
The present government holds a political grudge against Abdur Rahim as he accompanied BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia in her visits while she was the prime minister, added Advocate Kamrul Islam Sazzad.
Kamrul was cross-examining the IO, Moniruzzaman Chowdhury, also a prosecution witness, before Chittagong Metropolitan Special Tribunal Number-1 Judge SM Mojibur Rahman.
Kamrul also accused Moniruzzaman of giving false statements and taking confessions forcibly from witnesses.
The first statement Abdur Rahim provided to an IO did not have any mention of NSI and Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI), he said.
Neither did the statements of three witnesses -- the then deputy commissioner of Chittagong police Abdullah Hel Baki, Chittagong Metropolitan Police commissioner SM Sabbir Ali and Criminal Investigation Department (CID) deputy inspector general Forrukh Ahmed, he said.
However, Abdur Rahim was later compelled to give a confessional statement to a court and the remaining three statements to IOs relating to the NSI and DGFI, he added.
Moniruzzaman denied these arguments.
Kamrul also said statements given by two witnesses -- sergeants Alauddin and Helaluddin -- to CID in 2009 differed from what they gave to a court in 2010. Moreover, they did not accuse anyone before 2010, he said.
Eleven accused of the cases, including former state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar and former industries minister Motiur Rahman Nizami, were produced before the court yesterday.
The court fixed today for the next hearing.
The two cases were filed with Karnaphuli Police Station a day after seven truckloads of arms and ammunitions were seized at a jetty of Chittagong Urea Fertiliser Ltd in Chittagong city on April 2, 2004.
Charge sheets of the two cases, one for smuggling firearms and the other under the arms act, accused 50 and 52 persons respectively.
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