Witness makes U-turn

A witness yesterday sided with 21 persons accused of hacking tailor Bishwajit Das to death during a road blockade programme of the BNP-led 18-party alliance on December 9 last year.
Puzzled at this, the prosecution immediately sought permission from the Speedy Trial Tribunal-4 to declare witness Mohammad Babar alias Babu “hostile”.
Babu is an employee of QG Shamdani Petrol Pump near Victoria Park in Old Dhaka.
In his deposition, Babu told the court that he knew nothing about the murder as he was not present at the petrol filling station at that time.
He, however, had earlier told the investigation officer in the murder case that although the petrol filling station was closed on that day due to the road blockade programme, he, along with his senior colleagues, was present there.
He had also mentioned that at about 9:00am on that day, he had seen a procession of people in the area. At one stage, it broke up and stabbed a man. The following day Babu came to know that it was Bishwajit who died in the attack.
Police had seized a pair of sandals belonging to Bishwajit from the spot in presence of Babu and he had signed the list of evidence in the case.
After recording Babu's deposition yesterday, Judge ABM Nizamul Haque of the tribunal allowed Public Prosecutor SM Rafiqul Islam to declare the witness hostile. The PP then asked the witness several questions to find clues about him making a U-turn.
About the reason for the backtracking, Kazi Md Sajawar Hossain, senior criminal lawyer of the Supreme Court, said Babu might have been bribed or threatened by the accused.
The court fixed August 4 for the next hearing in the case.
Meantime, Rafiqul told the newsmen in the courtroom that he could not handle the case properly due to non-cooperation of bench assistant Abul Kalam Azad.
The PP alleged that Azad had issued summonses for the witnesses at their permanent addresses, though there are provisions for issuing summons at present address.
The bench assistant on July 25 had issued a summons for witness Mohammad Saiful Islam, an employee of Intensive Dental Care where Bishwajit was hacked, at his permanent address in Jhalakathi to appear before the court yesterday.
The bench assistant did it without notifying the PP. As a result, Saiful did not know that he was to appear before the court yesterday.
Interestingly, the witness's present address is just around 20 yards from the court.
Contacted, Azad denied sending the summons for Saiful at his permanent address.
Four witnesses, including the complainant in the case, had earlier testified before the court on different dates.
Proprietor of Amantron Tailors in the city's Shankharibazar, Bishwajit, 24, was hacked to death allegedly by some activists of Bangladesh Chhatra League.