Law-&-Order
Case filed over Sylhet BNP leader's murder
A case has been filed over the murder of a Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader in Sylhet's Amberkhana area on Sunday night.
The case was filed at Jalalabad police station on Tuesday night against 10 named and 4-5 unnamed people including Azizur Rahman Samrat following a complaint lodged by the victim’s brother Moinul Haque, Azbahar Ali Sheikh, deputy commissioner of Sylhet Metropolitan Police (North), confirmed.
However, no one has been arrested so far, the police official said.
Read: Sylhet BNP politician stabbed to death
AFM Kamal, former health affairs secretary of Sylhet district unit of BNP, was killed after miscreants blocked his car and stabbed him in Barobazar area of Sylhet on Sunday night.
Following the death, BNP leaders and activists started a protest march from Sylhet MAG Osmani Medical College Hospital premises on the same night.
At that time, several motorcycles were burnt and a private car was vandalised in the Rikabibazar area.
Read: 35-yr-old killed over land dispute in Sylhet
Besides, pictures of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina were torn during the procession.
When the procession reached the Rikabibazar area, a group of Chhatra League members clashed with them. A chase and counter took place between the two groups.
Later, police reached the spot and dispersed the protesters.
Meanwhile, 4 people have been arrested in connection with the vandalism under section 54, said Mohammad Ali Mahmud, officer-in-Charge (OC) of Sylhet Kotwali Police Station.
‘Police now a symbol of dependability and confidence’
Lauding the role of police in providing security, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal has said the law enforcement agency is now a symbol of dependability and confidence to the public.
He made the remark while exchanging views with high-ranked police officers during a two-day ‘quarterly conference’ at Police Headquarters in the capital.
Asaduzaman said “We are praised across the world for your (police) role in curbing terrorism risking your lives.”
Read more: Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun adorned with IGP Rank Badge
“Pirates and forest criminals surrendered to the police thanks to your operations,” he said.
Referring to the ongoing political programme by the BNP across the country, he said they wouldn’t intervene in any political activities, but none will be spared if they try to create suffering for people in the name of political programme.
Md Aminul Islam Khan, senior secretary of public security division under the home ministry, said presently work area of police and their challenges increased. Strategy and pattern of crime also got changed.
He said the police have been performing their duty with success in maintaining law and order situation of the country.
Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun, inspector general of police (IGP), said people’s confidence in police increased due to their role in ensuring law and order with professionalism.
Read more: Militancy under full control in Bangladesh: IGP
He said police acquired an outstanding achievement in curbing militant and terrorism.
CID’s head and additional IGP Mohammad Ali Mia, PBI’s head and also additional IGP Banaj Kumar Majumadr spoke at the programme among others.
HC suspends Tk 1.5 lakh fine against Destiny chairman in money laundering sentence
The High Court on Tuesday suspended a Tk 1.5 lakh fine imposed on scam-ridden Destiny Multipurpose Co-Operative Society Ltd’s chairman, Mohammad Hossain, in a money laundering case.
A bench of Justice Md Nazrul Islam Talukder and Justice Khizir Hayat passed the order during a hearing on a petition in this regard.
Mohammad Hossain was sentenced to 10 years in prison and fined Tk 1.5 lakh in the case. Failure to pay the fine would see him spend additional one year in jail.
Hossain has just completed his 10 years in jail. But as he never paid the fine, he was potentially looking at spending another year in jail, till the petition was filed. As the High Court suspended the fine, there remains no bar to his release from prison now, said M Sarwar Hossain, the petitioner’s lawyer.
However, he has meanwhile been convicted in another case for misappropriating funds from a tree plantation project. So he will have to remain behind bars for now, said Sarwar Hossain. A hearing on his bail plea in the case will be heard by the court next week.
Read more: HC defers Tarique-Zubaida’s hearing in corruption case
In May, a Dhaka court sentenced all 46 accused, including Destiny Group MD Rafiqul Amin, his wife Farah Diba, and Destiny-2000 president Lt Gen Harun (retd), to different terms in prison in the money laundering case, and fined them a combined Tk 2,300 crore.
Rafiqul Amin was given 12 years in prison, with a Tk 200 crore fine, while his wife Farah Diba was awarded eight years' imprisonment.
On June 16, Rafiqul Amin moved the High Court against the sentence.
Of the 46 accused, Rafiqul Amin, Mohammad Hossain, M Harun-ur-Rashid, Jasmine Akhter, Ziaul Haque and Saiful Islam are currently in jail.
Didarul Alam, another one of the accused, went home after the verdict was announced as his jail term was complete.
The remaining 39 accused in this case are absconding.
Read more: CJ Sinha corruption case: Spl court defers judgment to Oct 21
In July 2012, two separate cases were filed with the Kalabagan police station against Rafiqul and other officials of Destiny on the allegation of embezzling money from the investors in the name of Destiny Multipurpose Cooperative Society and Destiny Tree Plantation Limited and laundering it.
According to the case complaint, Destiny Group collected Tk 1,901 crore from the investors and embezzled Tk 1,861.45 crore of it. As a result, its eight lakh investors were swindled of their rightful return.
HC defers hearing on defamation case against ex-Gazipur mayor
The High Court on Tuesday deferred the proceedings of a defamation case filed against former mayor of Gazipur City Corporation (GCC) Jahangir Alam.
A bench of Justice A.S.M Abdul Mobin and Justice SM Masud Hossain Dolon passed the order after hearing a petition to have the case filed in Faridpur earlier thrown out. Lawyer AKM Rahman stood for the former mayor.
Alam is currently out on bail in the case filed against him for making derogatory and misleading comments on Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the War of Liberation.
Read more: HC defers Tarique-Zubaida’s hearing in corruption case
Although elected as an Awami League candidate, Alam's time in office was cut short after a leaked video of him in conversation with some senior leaders of the party's Gazipur district unit emerged in September 2021.
His statements in that video got him suspended from the party at first, and eventually the government sacked him as mayor as well.
Then a Faridpur court on August 31 this year issued an arrest warrant for the former mayor after one Ataur Rahman, organising secretary of ‘Manobik Bangladesh Society’, filed a defamation case.
Read more: CJ Sinha corruption case: Spl court defers judgment to Oct 21
Besides Faridpur, the former mayor faced several cases on the same allegation in Rajbari, Gazipur, Naogaon, Madaripur, Gopalganj and Panchagarh.
'Fraud gang leader' held in Dhaka
In a joint operation by the National Security Intelligence (NSI) Agency and RAB, the mastermind of a fraud gang and his aid were arrested from the capital's Banani on Monday.
Shri Haridas Chandra Taranidas, 34, son of Shri Gopinath of Bogura's Shibganj and Md Imran Mehdi Hasan, 38, son of Md Saiful Islam of Mymensingh's Trishal.
Shri Haridas Chandra is a converted Muslim and he changed his name to Tawhid Islam after converting to Islam.
Also read: 26 members of new militant group ‘Jamatul Ansar Fil Hindal Sharqiya' held so far: Rab
The law enforcers also seized 4 mobile sets and various documents used in fraudulence from their possession.
Tipped off, a team of NSI and Rab-3 conducted a joint drive in the area and arrested the accused, said a media statement of RAB.
During primary interrogation, the arrestees confessed to their involvement in fraudulent activities for a long time. The nature of the alleged crimes has not been explained.
Legal action is underway against the arrestees, RAB said.
Rohingya man shot dead in Cox’s Bazar
A Rohingya man was shot dead by some unidentified miscreants at Teknaf upazila in Cox’s Bazar on Monday night.
The deceased was identified as Mohammad Salam, 26, from Musni refugee camp in Teknaf, said Abdul Halim, Officer-in-Charge of Teknaf police station.
Read more: Rohingya leaders shot dead in Cox’s Bazar
Three unidentified men took wounded Salam to Kutopalong Hospital at Ukhiya where doctors announced him dead on arrival, said the OC.
The men who took Salam to the hospital fled the hospital, he said.
Salam was sued in two cases for drug peddling and murder, said the OC.
6 get death sentence for raping teenage girl in Khulna
A tribunal in Khulna on Tuesday sentenced six men to death for raping a teenage girl in Sonadanga upazila in 2019.
The death-row convicts are Morshedul Islam Shanto alias Shanto Biswas, Sheikh Shahadat Hossain, Md Rabbi Hasan Parash, Md Mahmud Hasan Akash, Kazi Ariful Islam Pritam and Md Mim Hossain. Among them, Shanto, Shahadat and Pritam were tried in absentia.
Khulna Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal-3 Judge Abdus Salam Khan delivered the judgment.
Read more: Unspeakable: Parents tied up before daughter gang-raped by vandals in Subarnachar
The court fined the convicts Tk 20,000 each.
The court also sentenced four adolescents to eight years imprisonment each. One of them was sentenced to three more years more jail under the Anti-Pornography Act.
According to the case, Shanto raped the sixth grader girl after taking her to a rented house of another convict on June 29 in 2019. The others convicts videoed the crime and raped the girl in terms.
Read more: Sunamganj: 5 get life in prison in attempted rape, rape cases
On the following day, a case was filed against nine people at Sonadanga police station.
On November 13 of the same year, the investigation officer of the case and Sonadanga police station officer-in-charge (OC) Momtazul Hoque submitted a chargesheet against 10 convicts.
ACC moves to sign deals with 8 nations to bring laundered money back
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) on Tuesday initiated a process for signing agreement with eight countries for mutual legal assistance to bring back money laundered abroad, said ACC Secretary Md. Mahbub Hossain.
As part of the initiative, a committee has already been formed under the leadership of Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) consisting of officials from various related organisations. The committee will submit the draft agreement to the Financial Institutions Department within the next three weeks, he said.
Read: HC cancels 2014 acquittal of accused trio in Tk 12cr Sonali Bank graft case
He said that the countries with which ACC wants to sign agreements are Canada, United States, United Kingdom, Singapore, Australia, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates and Thailand.
Man gets 5-yr jail for spreading ‘human head’ rumour about Padma Bridge construction
A Rajshahi court on Tuesday sentenced man to five-year imprisonment in a case over spreading rumour about using human head to construct Padma Bridge in 2011 through Facebook.
Rajshahi divisional Cyber Crime Tribunal Judge Ziaur Rahman pronounced the judgment.
The convict is Razib Hossain,30, son of Abdur Razzaq of Durgapur upazila in Rajshahi.
In October, 2011, Razib posted a status from his Facebook profile that said, ”The Padma Bridge construction in Bangladesh has been obstructed as it will need more than 1 lakh human heads. As per the directive of the Prime Minister, 41 teams are out on the streets, playgrounds, markets with sharp weapons and gas spray to collect those heads,” said Public Prosecutor Ismat Ara.
Also read: Woman gets 5-yr jail term for possessing drugs in Chattogram Woman gets 5-yr jail term for possessing drugs in Chattogram
He also said the main target of these teams are women and children and they are doing this heinous crime even entering people’s houses so he posted it to create awareness, she said.
Razib was sentenced to two years rigorous imprisonment under section 25(2) of the Digital Security Act, 2018, with fine of Tk two lakh. In case of failure to pay the fine, he will have to serve another six months’ imprisonment.
Also read: Attack on Ghoraghat UNO: One gets 13 years jail
Under section 31(2) of the same act, he was sentenced to three years imprisonment with Tk 3 lakh in fine. In case of failure to pay the fine he will have to serve six months more imprisonment.
JCD leader Milon’s custodial death: Court rejects plea to sue 6 cops
A Dhaka court on Tuesday rejected a petition seeking permission to file a case against six policemen, including the OCs of Shahbagh and Ramna police stations, over the custodial death of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) Dhaka north city unit vice president Zakir Hossain Milon in 2018.
Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Court Judge Asaduzzaman turned down the plea, said Tapas Kumar Pal, additional public prosecutor of the court.
Earlier on October 12, Milon's uncle BM Wali Ullah submitted a petition to file a case under the Torture and Custodial Death (Prevention) Act, 2013.
Read: Attack on Tabith Awal: Court dismisses case against 15 AL men, OC
The court fixed Tuesday for the order.
The petition was submitted to sue Ramna Model police station OC Kazi Mainul Islam, Shahbag police station OC Abul Hasan, Sub-Inspector (SI) Sujan Kumar Roy, SI Saidur Rahman Munshi, SI Amal Krishna and SI Shahriar Reza and some 4-5 unnamed police officers.
On March 6, 2018, Milon was detained when he was returning from a programme at the Jatiya Press Club.
Read: HC clears way to continue graft case against BNP leader Dulu
According to the petition, the Chhatra Dal leader was tortured by Shahbagh police. He was later sent to jail after completion of his remand in a case filed for obstructing police from performing their duties.
On March 12, 2018, as Milon fell sick, jail authorities took him to Dhaka Medical College Hospital where doctors declared him dead.