Witness negates defence suggestion

A prosecution witness yesterday negated defence suggestion that he never knew and saw war crimes accused ATM Azharul Islam during the liberation war in 1971.
The 10th prosecution witness, Ratan Chandra Das, said this at the International Crimes Tribunal-1 while being cross-examined by defence counsel Abdus Sobhan Tarafder.
In his deposition, the witness on April 10 said he saw Azharul along with Pakistani occupation army had picked up four professors of Carmichael College and wife of one of them before killing them near Damdama Bridge in Rangpur on April 30, 1971.
Ratan said he had been working as a cook at one of the professor's house at that time.
The defence counsel made another suggestion that he never was a cook of Prof Sunil of Carmichael College. The witness said it was not true.
In reply to another question, the witness said Pakistani army probably came to their village on mid-Boishakh (first month of Bangla calendar).
Tarafder told the witness that he (Ratan) identified the war crimes accused at the tribunal as per the dictation of the investigation officer.
“It is not true”, the witness said.
Besides Ratan, two other prosecution witnesses earlier testified at the tribunal that Pakistani army and Azharul picked up Rangpur Carmichael College teachers Kalachand Babu along with his wife, Sunil Chandra Baran, Chitta Ranjan Roy, and Ram Krishna Adhikary, and shot them dead at Damdama Bridge near Rangpur Town.
The tribunal-1 indicted Azharul, former president of Rangpur district unit Islami Chhatra Sangha, the then student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami, on six charges of murder, genocide and crimes against humanity committed during the Liberation War in 1971.
The proceeding of the case was adjourned until April 27.