Law-&-Order
Sinha murder case: OC Pradeep & Liakat appeal to HC for acquittal
Pradeep Kumar Das and Liakat Ali, two former police officials sentenced to death for the murder of Major Sinha Mohammad Rashed Khan (retired), have appealed to the High Court seeking acquittal.
Pradeep's lawyer Advocate Rana Dasgupta said on Tuesday that he has appealed to the office concerned of the High Court on Monday.
The acquittal of Pradeep and Liakat from the death sentence given by the lower court has been sought in the appeal, he added.
Read: Major Sinha murder case: Ex-OC Pradeep & Liakat shifted to Kashimpur Jail
A Cox’s Bazar court on January 31 sentenced former OC Pradeep and ex-inspector Liakat to death and six others to life imprisonment in the Major Sinha murder case.
District and Sessions Judge Mohammad Ismail pronounced the judgment in the presence of all the 15 accused, said Public Prosecutor Faridul Alam.
The court had, however, acquitted seven other accused in the case.
The death references of the murder case reached the High Court on February 8.
On February 9, Pradeep and Liakat were shifted to Kashimpur Jail in Gazipur.
Sinha murder
On July 31, 2020, Major Sinha was shot dead at the Shamlapur police check post in Baharchhara Union of Cox's Bazar while he was returning to the town after filming for a documentary.
Read: Sinha murder case: Death references reach HC
On August 5, 2020, Sinha's sister, Sharmin Shahriar Ferdous, moved the Teknaf Senior Judicial Magistrate's Court accusing nine members of law enforcement agencies of the murder, including former officer-in-charge of Teknaf Model Police Station Pradeep Kumar Das and Baharchhara Police Outpost inspector Liakat Ali.
On December 13 the same year, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) submitted a charge-sheet against 15 people, including ex-OC Pradeep, police informer Ayaz and three APBn members, in the case.
On June 27, 2021, the court framed charges against them.
Driver of bus that killed 5 people held in Sirajganj
Members of Rapid Action Battalion(Rab) in Sirajganj have arrested the driver of a bus which hit and killed five people in Sherpur upazila in Bagura.
The arrestee is Saiful Islam,56, son of Jane Alam of Begunbari village in Savar, said Rapid Action Battalion 12 (Rab) in a press release.
Rab-12 members arrested Saiful from Hatikumrul Gol Chattar area in Sirajganj at 5pm on Monday, said Md Mostafizur Rahman, Additional Superintendent of police.
On January 26, a recklessly driven bus of Hanif Paribahan hit an auto rickshaw at Mirzapur in Sherpur upazila.
Read: 2 held with 20 gold bars along Jashore border
Five people including the auto rickshaw driver died on the spot .
Later, the auto rickshaw driver’s son logged a complaint against the unidentified driver of the bus with Sherpur police station .
Woman’s body recovered from Ctg hotel; Youth held
Police in a drive arrested a youth from Ashulia in Dhaka on Sunday night after the recovery of the throat- slit body of an unidentified woman from a hotel in Agrabad area.
The arrestee is Quamrul Hasan who identified himself as the husband of a 25-year-old woman and hired a room of a hotel on Thursday where the woman was found dead.
Additional deputy commissioner of Chattogram Metropolitan Police, Sadat Hossain Russel, said a team of police arrested Quamrul from Ashulia area around 11 pm.
Earlier on Thursday, the woman was found dead with her throat slit in the hotel room.
The incident came to light on Friday as police filed a case at Halishohor Police Station.
Read: 2 held with 20 gold bars along Jashore border
Mostafizur Rahman, the officer-in-charge of Halishohor Police Station, said the woman checked into the hotel along with a man on Thursday afternoon
"The two had identified themselves as married couple. Around 5.30 pm, the man left the hotel," he said.
Cops broke open the door of the hotel room after its staff alerted them around 11.30 pm after getting no response from inside.
Later, police recovered the body of the woman.
2 held with 20 gold bars along Jashore border
Members of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) detained two smugglers with 20 gold bars weighing 3.9 kg from Putkhali border in Jashore Monday morning.
The detainees are Md Liton Hossain, 25, son of Md Ali hossain and Md Hafizur Rahman, 28, son of Md Azizur Rahman of PutKhali village of Jashore.
According to a media release of BGB, tipped off,a team of BGB-21 in Khulna detained the duo with 20 gold bars after conducting a search operation on a road at Balunda Keshopur village three kms inside Bangladesh border under Benapole Port.
Read: Rohingya boatman hacked to death in Cox's Bazar
During the drive, BGB men also seized a motorcycle, three mobile phones and cash of Tk 6,390.
The estimated market value of the seized gold is Tk 2.49 crore.
Steps were being taken to hand over the smugglers along with the seized gold bars to Benapole Port Police Station, the release added.
Man arrested over killing daughter in Thakurgaon
A man in Thakurgaon was arrested for allegedly stabbing his two and half years old daughter to death on Thursday night.The arrestee is Zakir Hossain, 32, son of Sahidul of Sarkarpara village of West Begunbari in Sadar upazila.According to the police, Zakir had been suffering from depression for a long time. Zakir used to beat his wife Belly and daughter Jannatun Ferdous.
Read: Man arrested for chopping wife’s wrist in Narayanganj for dowryOn Thursday night, he stabbed his daughter to death. When the police reached the spot, Zakir attacked the Officer-in-Charge (Investigation) of Sadar Police Station AKM Atiqur Rahman and injured him.However, police sprayed Zakir and managed to arrest him after 3 hours of effort.Confirming the incident, Sadar Police Station OC, Tanvirul Islam said the body was handed over to her mother after an autopsy.A murder case has been filed with the Sadar police station in this regard, he said.
Man arrested for chopping wife’s wrist in Narayanganj for dowry
A man was arrested on Thursday in connection with torturing his wife and hacking off her wrist demanding dowry at Fatullah in Narayanganj.
Md Rafik,31 was held from Halishahar police station area in Chattogram during a joint drive of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) 11 and 7.
Rafik got married to the victim one and a half years ago and started demanding Tk two lakh as dowry.
Even after being payed Tk 1 lakh Rafik used to often torture his wife physically and mentally and sent her back to father's home not getting the remaining amount.
A month ago he took his wife back to their rented flat in Fatullah area.
Read: Youth dies after falling off train in Ctg
On January 15, accused Rafik tied his wife and cut her wrist with a sharp knife at around 7 pm.
After the incident he locked his injured wife from outside and fled.
On January 19, the victim's brother Md Rubel filed a case at Fatullah police station in this regard under Women and Children Repression Prevention Act.
In primary interrogation, accused Rafik confessed his crime to Rab .
Process to hand him over to Fatullah model police station is underway, said Rab-11 in a press release on Friday.
2012 journo-couple murder: Bring perpetrators to justice, says ARTICLE 19
A UK-based human rights organisation has raised concern over the "unsolved murder case" of journalist-couple Sagar Sarowar and Meherun Runi.
The two journalists were murdered brutally inside their apartment in the Raja Bazar area of Dhaka in front of their five-year-old son, Megh, on February 11, 2012.
ARTICLE 19 that works for the freedom of expression and right to information (RTI), on Friday called for taking progressive steps to complete the investigation in the case and bring justice without any further delay.
Read: Khulna: Rare surgery saves Indian worker's wrist
“This unsolved case is a shameful example of the strong existence of a culture of impunity that questions the judiciary system of the country where the killers go free. It indicates the failure of the state in protecting the journalists and ensuring the security of the journalists of the country and bringing justice to any disorder," said Faruq Faisel, the regional director, ARTICLE 19.
“No progress of investigation into this murder case clearly threatens the safety of journalists, challenges the state’s protection mechanism and evidentially letting the perpetrators go free makes the government unaccountable,” he added.
Mother remanded for killing 17-month-old baby in Sylhet
A Sylhet court on Thursday placed a woman on three-day remand after she was arrested on charge of killing her 17-months old daughter.
Sylhet Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Md Sumon Bhuiyan passed the order after police produced the accused before the court and sought five days in remand to interrogate her, said Syed Anisur Rahman, Officer-in-Charge of Shahporan police station.
On Wednesday night, a murder case was filed at Shahporan police station followed by the complaint of Sabbir Ahmed an expatriate of Qatar against his wife Nazmin Jahan,28, for killing their daughter Nusrat Jahan Sabiha.
Nazmin confessed to police of suffocating her daughter to death with a pillow at 2 pm on Wednesday over her anger with Sabbir for not taking care of them.
According to police, Sabbir, a resident of the Baldi area at Dakshin Surma upazila has recently returned from Qatar.
But due to marital feud Nazmin used to live in a separate rented flat in the Shaporan area in Sylhet city with their daughter Sabiha, 11-year-old daughter from a previous marriage and her younger sister.
Rescuing Sabiha on Wednesday Nazmin’s sister and neighbours took her to Sylhet MAG Osmani Medical College Hospital where the duty doctor found her death.
Read: Bribery case: Judgment against ex-DIG Mizan, another on Feb 23
As Nazmin tried to run away from the hospital locals detained her and informed the Kotwali police station.
According to Nazmin, in 2015 she got married to Sabbir and after six months he left for Qatar.
After that Nazmin started living in that flat in the Shahporan area and used to teach at a private school.
Meanwhile, Sabbir did not keep contact with her and did not provide any alimony, she alleged.
In 2020, Sabbir returned to Sylhet and started living with Nazmin but left immediately after she got pregnant with Sabiha.
Nazmin said Sabbir claimed the child was not his but after giving birth as Sabiha’s facial features matched his father’s Nazmin was saved from further humiliation.
“About 15 days ago, Sabbir returned to Sylhet and did not feel the need to contact me. He came to visit Sabiha for a few minutes but not as my husband,” she said.
“Out of sorrow and rage she tried to kill Sabiha, she confessed to police but did not give a statement under section 164, so we sought for remand to interrogate her”, said OC Anisur Rahman.
Sabbir was also interrogated at the Kotwali police station in this regard, he said.
Anti-narcotics drive: 74 held in city
Members of Detective Branch (DB) under Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) and police of different police stations have arrested 74 people on charges of selling and consuming drugs.
Police arrested them conducting anti-narcotics drives in different areas of the capital in 24 hours till 6am on Thursday.
During the drives, 32,575 contraband yaba tablets, 25.5 grams of heroin, 5.185 kg cannabis, 13.5 litres of locally made liquor and 54 bottles of phensedyl were recovered from their possession.
Read: 2 cops among 8 sued for murdering Bangladeshi-American in capital
As part of the DMP’s regular anti-drug drive, they raided areas under various police stations in the capital.
A total of 57 cases were filed with different police stations against the arrested people under the Narcotics Control Act.
Haji Selim ordered to surrender before trial court within 30 days
The full text of the High Court’s verdict was published on Thursday upholding 10-year imprisonment of Awami League parliamentarian Haji Mohammad Selim.
Haji Selim was asked to surrender to the trial court within 30 days of receiving the verdict from HC, Khurshid Alam Khan, lawyer of Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) told UNB.
HC directed the trial court to cancel the bail order to the Dhaka-7 MP and issue an arrest warrant against him if he does not surrender within the given time.
However, Haji Selim’s wife Gulshan Ara’s appeal filed in this case has been rejected as she died in 2020.
ACC lawyer, Khurshid Alam said, “After this verdict Haji Selim has lost the eligibility to remain a MP according to the paragraph 66 (2) of the constitution.”
Meanwhile Haji Selim’s lawyer ayed Ahmed Raza said, “We will appeal to the Supreme Court’s appellate division against the HC order. Until it gets settled Haji Selim can not be considered indicted and no such bar is effective on him remaining a MP.”
Lawyer Sayed Ahmed Raza however said Haji Selim will surrender to the trial court within 30 days following the HC order for now.
Read: Govt working to bring back ex-envoy Khairuzzaman from Malaysia: Shahriar
On March, 9, last year HC bench of Justice Md Moinul Islam Chowdhury and Justice AKM Zahirul Huq passed the order after hearing a petition by the ACC
At the same time, the Dhaka-7 MP was acquitted of a three-year jail term in the same case filed by the ACC for concealing wealth information.
The High Court also reduced the fine imposed on Selim by half to Tk 10 lakh. He will have to spend one more year in jail if he fails to pay the fine.
In 2007, the ACC filed the case against Salim. On April 27, 2008, a Dhaka court jailed him for 13 years and fined Tk 20 lakh.
Selim moved the High Court against the verdict.
In 2011, the court overturned his sentence but the ACC later appealed against the lower court verdict.
Later, the Appellate Division asked the High Court to re-hear the petition.
Irregularities of Selim resurfaced after his son Irfan Selim was arrested for assaulting a navy official in 2020.