HC to deliver verdict soon

The High Court is set to deliver a verdict on the long pending appeals filed in connection with the sensational Commodore Ghulam Rabbani murder case.
The verdict might come any day after the court reopens on September 15 following its annual vacation that started on August 2.
Ghulam Rabbani -- an aide-de-camp (ADC) of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and a vital prosecution witness of both the historic Bangabandhu murder case and jail killing case -- was gunned down in Chittagong more than nine years ago.
He was the then managing director of Korean Export Processing Zone (KEPZ).
A gang of armed criminals shot Rabbani -- also former chairman of Chittagong Port Authority (CPA), and former director general of the Department of Shipping -- in his throat by intercepting his microbus at Muradpur in Chittagong when he was going to the KEPZ on April 11, 2004.
The unidentified criminals numbering six to seven also snatched the belongings of five of his colleagues, who were boarding the same microbus bound for the KEPZ, a sister concern of Korean conglomerate Youngone Corporation Ltd.
AKM Emtajul Islam, former site engineer of the KEPZ, filed an attempt to murder case with Panchlaish Police Station on the same night.
Rabbani succumbed to his injuries at Bumrungrad Hospital in Bangkok on April 24, 2004, 13 days after the shooting. The case was then turned into a murder case.
According to the case records, Rabbani was killed following a conflict between him and a few of his colleagues at the KEPZ centring his appointment as its MD, and termination of two employees of the KEPZ before and after his appointment.
After his appointment, Rabbani started an investigation into the allegations of corruption and irregularities brought against the two terminated employees.
On April 7, 2005, Chittagong Divisional Speedy Trial Tribunal sentenced three accused -- Mohammad Selim, Mohammad Hashim and Abdul Malik Sohel -- to life term imprisonment.
Former KEPZ general manager Abu Naser Chowdhury and former chief security officer Humayun Kabir Chowdhury were also handed down five years' imprisonment in the murder case.
In the verdict, the tribunal's Judge M Hasan Imam observed many weaknesses and loopholes in the investigation conducted by investigation officer (IO) Faruk Ahmed, the then assistant commissioner of Chittagong Metropolitan Police, Panchlaish zone.
The judge ordered the authorities concerned of the court to send a copy of the judgment to the inspector general of police (IGP) for departmental action against the IO for his negligence.
According to the verdict, the IO made mistakes in the investigation, as he did not record confessional statements from any of the accused under 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).
He neither took statements from the accused under 161 of the CrPC nor included any eyewitnesses, and made none of the family members of Rabbani witnesses in the case, the court observed.
All of the convicted accused filed appeals against the verdict with the HC in 2005. Of them, Hashim was acquitted by the HC in August 2008. Others were also granted bail in 2005.
The government filed two separate revision appeals with the HC in 2005 praying highest punishment for the accused.
The HC bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Akram Hossain started hearing arguments on the appeals in August last year, concluded the hearing on June 19 this year, and kept the appeals waiting for a verdict.
Some pro-Awami League lawyers including its presidium member Yusuf Hossain Humayun and its lawmaker Nurul Islam Sujan appeared for the accused in the case, Assistant Attorney General Gazi Mamun Rashid told The Daily Star.
Attorney General Mahbubey Alam, senior lawyers Khandker Mahbub Hossain, Abdur Razzaque Khan, and SM Mobin stood for the state in this case, he added.