N’GANJ SEVEN-MURDER HC verdict on 26 death-row convicts posted Aug 13

The High Court on Wednesday set August 13 for delivering its verdict on the death reference of 26 convicts and their appeals against the convictions in the sensational seven murders that took place in Narayanganj in 2014.
The 26 convicts include local Awami League leader Noor Hossain, the then Rapid Action Battalion commanding officer in Narayanganj Lieutenant Colonel Tarek Sayeed Mohammad and RAB officers Major Arif Hossain and Lieutenant Commander Masud Rana. 
The bench of Justice Bhabani Prasad Singha and Justice Mustafa Zaman Islam set the schedule after closing the hearing on the sensational case at the 33rd working days.
On January 16, a trial court in Narayanganj handed death sentence to 26 men, including 16 RAB members, and various jail terms to nine other RAB members for murdering local Awami League leader and Narayanganj City Corporation ward councillor Nazrul Islam, lawyer Chandan Kumar Sarkar and five others.
The court had also found their involvement in conspiring to abduct and killing the victims and dumping their bodies into a river for concealing evidence of their crimes.
On the closing day, Tarek and Rana’s lawyer Munsurul Hoque Chowdhury argued that his clients had ‘no direct involvement’ in the murders.
Munsurul prayed his clients’ death sentence be commuted to life term if their ‘indirect involvements’ were proved.
He argued that Tarek had carried out the order of his superior officer, the then Additional Director General (ADG) of Rapid Action Battalion Colonel Ziaul Ahsan regarding the arrest of councillor Nazrul. 
But Ziaul Ahsan was neither accused nor made a witness to the case, or any inquiry was conducted regarding his alleged involvement, the lawyer argued.
Munsurul argued that Tarek asked Arif only to ‘pick up’ councillor Nazrul, a listed criminal, and bring him to RAB office in Narayanganj but Arif picked all the seven victims and ‘finished’ them. 
Mansurul said that Rana was asked to assist Arif in Nazrul’s arrest and he did so. 
Arif’s lawyer SM Shajahan argued that Arif only carried out the order of his superior officer, Tarek. 
The lawyer prayed Arif’s acquittal on the ground of flaws in the trial procedure, arguing that filing two cases in connection with the same incident were illegal. 
Earlier on Tuesday, attorney general Mahbubey Alam, deputy attorney general KM Zahid Sarwar and assistant attorney general Bashir Ahmed argued that Noor Hossain being the ringleader of the barbaric act had conspired with the RAB officers to kill his political rival Nazrul. 
Mahbubey Alam argued that the convicted RAB officers had materialised Noor Hossain’s conspiracy in exchange for huge money. 
According to prosecution’s evidence, councillor Nazrul and his four associates were abducted by two teams of the RAB—one led by Major Arif and the other by commander Rana from near Narayanganj court premises at about 1:40pm on April 27, 2014.
The RAB personnel later abducted Chandan Kumar Sarkar and his driver as he protested at the arrest of Nazrul and his associates.
All the seven persons were taken to RAB office in Narsingdi and they were later strangled to death by poly bags on their way to the landing station near Kanchpur Bridge in Narayanganj at night, and before that Major Arif injected medicine into their bodies to leave them unconscious.
Tarek received Arif, who came with the bodies on two microbuses at the landing station from where the bodies on several trawlers anchored by commander Rana, were dumped into estuaries of Meghna River in Munshiganj.
Some bricks were attached to the bodies, which were put into several sacks before they were into deep waters. 
The bodies were found floating at Shitalakhy River days on April 30, 2014, after the abduction and killing of the victims.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net