law-order
Mitu murder: Court accepts chargesheet against Babul Akter, six others
A Chattogram court on Monday accepted the chargesheet against former Chattogram Superintendent of Police (SP) Babul Akter and six others in a case filed over the killing of Babul's wife Mahmuda Khanam Mitu.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Abdul Halim accepted the chargesheet.
Ex-SP Babul Akter filed a no-confidence (naraji) petition against the chargesheet, said additional police commissioner Quamrul Islam, but the court rejected it.
The others accused in the case are—Motaleb Mia alias Wasim, Anwar Hossain, Ehteshamul Haque Bhola, Shahjahan Mia, Quamrul Islam Shikdar alias Musa and Khairul Islam alias Kalu. Of them, Musa and Kalu remain 'absconding' according to police.
But Musa's wife has long maintained that he was picked up by police within weeks of the Mitu killing.
On September 13, the Police Bureau of investigation (PBI) pressed the charges against Babul Akter and six others in a case filed over the killing of his wife Mahmuda Khanam Mitu.
Abu Zafar Md Omar Faruk, inspector of PBI and also the investigation officer of the case, submitted the chargesheet to the prosecution unit of the Chattogram court.
On June 5, 2016, unidentified assailants gunned down Babul's wife Mitu at the port city's GEC intersection while she was going to drop her son Mahir Akter, 7, at the pickup spot for his school bus.
Soon after the crime, Babul filed a murder case at Panchlaish Police Station against three unidentified men.
The case was transferred to the Police Bureau Investigation (PBI) in 2019 after Mitu's father, himself a retired police officer, filed a complaint against the CMP's mishandling of the case.
On May 12, 2021, the PBI submitted its final report and arrested Babul Akter in another case filed by Mitu’s father and since then he has been in prison.
Babul Akhter also filed a ‘naraji petition’ against the PBI report on October 14, 2021.
On November 3 last year, a Chattogram Court rejected the final report of PBI in the murder case and ordered it to conduct further investigation.
7 to die for killing AL leader in Mymensingh
A Dhaka court has issued the death penalty to seven persons, including a union parishad chairman, for killing a local Awami League (AL) leader in Mymensingh’s Gauripur upazila in 2020.
The death penalties were awarded to Riyad Uzzaman Riyad, Chairman of Mailakanda union of Gauripur, Sakib Ahmed Reza, Joint General Secretary of Gauripur Municipality Chhatra Dal, Khairul Islam and Mozammel Haque, members of Mymensingh District (north) Swecchasebak Dal and Chhatra Dal activists Main Uddin, Shariful Islam and Ruhul Amin.
They have also been fined Tk 20,000 each.
Besides issuing death penalty, the court has also given life term to three others accused for their involvement in the crime.
The lifers are Masud Parvez aka Curzon, Shariat Ullah aka Sumon and Rasel Mia.
The court also fined the lifers Tk 20,000 each, non-realization of which will languish them six months more in jail.
Judge Monir Kamal of Dhaka Speedy Trial Tribunal-3 handed down the verdict on Monday.
Read: 'Death penalty deeply flawed, unfair'
On October 17, 2020, some unidentified assailants hacked Masudur Rahman Shuvro, General Secretary of Gauripur upazila Swecchasebak League, to death in the upazila’s Pan Mohal area at about 10:00pm.
Abidur Rahman, the deceased’s younger brother, filed a murder case with Gauripur Police Station following the incident. On April 27, 2021, Inspector of Detective Branch (DB) Shah Kamal Akanda submitted a charge sheet to the court accusing 19 people for the killing.
On January 26, 2022, the court framed charges against the accused and started the trial process. During the trial, the court collected testimonies from a total of 17 witnesses while nine people bore witness to the accused.
On October 6, 2022, the court set today for pronouncing the verdict after completion of arguments from the prosecution and the defendant.
5 arrested by RAB, inc. three youths who left home for militancy
Five men, including three youths, who apparently left home to join militant groups have been arrested by the Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) from the capital's Jatrabari and Keraniganj.
Commander Khandaker Al Moin, director of Rab’s Legal and Media Wing, also revealed in a briefing Monday that they have identified a total of 55 reportedly missing from different districts, who were suspected to leave home to join militant groups.
Of the five arrested today, two are relatively senior, working with the group as a host and fund supplier of the militant group, he said.
Read: 4 youths, among 7 arrested, members of new militant group: Rab
The arrestees were identified as militant group member Shah Md Habibullah, 32, Neyamat Ullah, 43, from Cumilla and missing youths Saiful Islam, 19, from Noakhali, Md Hossain,22, and Rakib Hasnat Niloy, 28 from Dhaka.
They were all arrested on Sunday night along with leaflets, books of extremist messages from the city’s Jatrabari and Keraniganj area during a drive, said the Rab commander..
On August 23, eight youths from Cumilla sadar upazila went missing and a general diary was lodged with police in this regard after two days. The incident sparked a huge sensation across media and social media and Rab started a detective investigation to rescue the victims and arrest the accused.
On September 1, one of the missing youths, Shartaz Islam Niloy, 22, returned home.
On October 6, Rab arrested seven people including four missing youths for involvement with a militant group from a drive conducted in Munshiganj, Naryanganj and Mymensingh following the information collected from questioning Niloy.
On interrogation, the arrestees revealed that initially the members of the organization used to target youths from different parts of the country, including Cumilla.
Read: Rab arrests 7 including 4 with suspected ties to radical groups
Later they incited the youths with extremism by showing different videos of persecution of Muslims and encouraged them to get separated from their families to prepare for armed attacks.
Arrested Hossain left home a year ago, Saiful one and a half months ago Rakib disappeared two months ago from his home.
Rab Commander Khandaker Al Moin said the missing youths were sent to various areas including Patuakhali and Bhola for training in armed attacks.
The youths were kept in different safe houses under the supervision of different persons in Patuakhali area and provided various training on physical exercise and militancy in different Char areas of Patuakhali and Bhola.
Also, as a strategy to stay under cover, they were given technical training in various fields like masons, painters, electricians.
13 fugitives arrested in Benapole
Police on Saturday claimed to have arrested thirteen fugitives wanted in drugs, arms and murder cases in Benapole.However, police didn't disclose the identities of the arrestees.Acting on a tip-off, a team of police conducted simultaneous drives in different areas of Benapole Port area all day on Saturday and arrested them, said Kamal Hossain Bhuiyan, OC of Benapole Port Police Station.
Read: 54 arrested at Benapole borderThe arrestees were produced before the court in Jashore under police protection, added the OC.
Girl from Netrakona gang-raped inside bogie at Kamalapur station
Police arrested five youths on charge of gang-raping a 17-year-female girl inside a bogie of an inter-district train stationed in the city's Kamalapur railway station early Saturday.Of the arrestees, two have given confessional statement about their involvement in the gang rape before a Dhaka court, police says. However, another perpetrator known as Imran has been absconding since the incident.The arrestees were identified as Nazmul, 25, Anwar, 20, Naim, 25, Sumon, 21, and Ruman alias Kalu,22.
Read: Young girl gang raped in ChattogramQuoting the 17-year old female juvenile, police said the victim hailing from a village of Netrokona reached Kamalapur police station by an inter-district train at around 8:30 pm on Friday night.She came to Dhaka leaving her village home after a quarrel with her parents, said OC of Kamalapur railway police station Ferdous Ahmed.As she had no specific destination, she was waiting at Platform no-2. Absconding Imran struck up a conversation with her and asked her to stay inside the bogie at Platform No-1 saying that it will be safe for her.Later at around 12:30 am, Imran along with 4-5 others went to the bogie and raped her forcibly. When a railway security guard was passing near the bogie, the perpetrators fled the scene in fear.The security guard rescued the girl and handed her over to Kamalapur railway police in the morning. Later, the police arrested the five youths from the station area identified by the victim.A victim filed a case with Kamalapur railway police station.
Police produced the arrested five youths before a Dhaka Court on Saturday afternoon. Of them, two - Naim and Sumon - gave confessional statements on their involvement in the gang rape incident, said the OC. All of the accused were sent to jail, while police are still hunting for absconder Imran.
3 arrested with arms, ammo in Rajshahi planned to create 'anarchy' ahead of polls
Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) claimed to have arrested three people and recovered four foreign revolvers, three foreign pistols and a huge amount of ammunitions from Kapashia Pahara area in Rajshahi city on Friday.
The arrestees are identified as Md Atikur Rahman alias Atik, 35, son of Md Abdul Matin of Kapashia Parharpur, his cohorts Md Shaheen Ali, 25, son of Md Jhandu Mia of Charkajla and Md Shahidul Islam, 26, son of Md Nekchhar Ai of Dharampur Purbopara in the city respectively.
Lieutenant Colonel Riaz Shahriar, commandant of the Rab-5, disclosed this information at a press conference in the Rab office of the city.
Read: Arms, ammo recovered from Rajshahi border
He said on information a team of the elite force conducted a drive at house of Atik and recovered four foreign revolvers, three foreign pistols, four magazines, eight rounds of bullet, 1.1 kilogram of gunpowder, 750 gram of stone used in making bomb and cocktail, other ammunitions, two mobile phone sets and four SIM cards.
With information revealed from Atik, the elite force also arrested Shaheen and Shahidul from separate places in the city, he said.
“The arrestees informed us that Rajshahi University’s students Tanjim, 27, and Md Abdur Rahim, 28, supplied the arms to them after collecting from an unknown place on Indian border,” he said.
The varsity’s students are members of an anti-liberation force and their main target is to destabilise stability of the country, he said adding that drives are on to nab them.
Replying to a question, the Rab officer said they had information the arrestees gathered the arms and ammunitions to create anarchy in Rajshahi as well as the country ahead of the next parliament elections.
Embezzling Tk 3 cr to send people abroad: 2 traffickers held in city
Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) said on Friday they arrested two suspected members of a human trafficking gang, who embezzled around Tk 3 crore from people in the name of sending them abroad, from the city’ Shantinagar area.
The arrestees were identified as Mahbubul Hasan, 50, and Mahmud Karim, 36.
Tipped off, a team of Rab-3 made the arrest after conducting a drive in Shantinagar on Thursday night, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Farzana Haque, staff officer (Media).
During primary interrogation, arrestee Mahbubul confessed that the gang used to fraud poor and unemployed people with promise of high-paying jobs in Europe and Middle Eastern countries by showing fake appointment letters and other documents of foreign companies. They 9 trafficked many others since 2000.
The gang collected 521 passports through brokers in various parts of Bangladesh in the last two years. They also took Tk 2-3 lakh to send each person to the Middle East and Tk 6-7 lakh to Europe, said the officer.
But they failed to send anyone abroad and to submit passports to any travel agency to start the process. They also failed to return the money to the victims.
However, the gang had sent some people abroad earlier alluring with high-paying jobs who were confined by the gang's foreign counterparts and tortured for ransom instead of getting jobs there, said ASP Farzana.
Legal steps are underway against the arrestees, she added.
DB seizes 20 microbuses after arrest of UP chairman at centre of sham car dealership
Dhaka Metropolitan Police's Detective Branch (DB) has seized 20 microbuses from across Bangladesh following the arrest of a union parishad chairman of Cumilla, held for swindling a string of car customers out of crores of taka.
Zakir Hossain, chairman of Manikachar union parishad of Cumilla, was arrested on September 21 from the district. DB seized the vehicles acting on the information provided by Zakir, DMP Additional Commissioner (DB) Md Haroon Or Rasheed told the media Thursday.
During interrogation, Zakir admitted a massive fraud involving cars. He "sold" many cars that he never delivered.
Zakir told police that he conned around 600-700 people, including businessmen, government officials and lawmakers, using 60-70 vehicles. For example, he "sold" a single microbus with the same registration number to 37 people.
First, two microbuses were seized from Zakir's possession, the DB chief said.
Later, based on the information given by him during interrogation, DB (Tejgaon Division) seized 20 more microbuses from different parts of the country, Haroon Or Rasheed added.
The UP chairman would cheat people with the help of 5-6 accomplices. He embezzled crores of taka and has 27 bank accounts in the name of his company "RK Motors" and his relatives.
There are as many as 12 cases against him at different police stations.
"DB (Tejgaon Division) started an investigation along with local police after a fraud case was filed against Zakir at Mughda Police Station on September 7," the DB chief said.
RU professor murder: Chamber judge stays execution of death row convict
The Appellate Division Chamber Judge has stayed the execution of a death row convict in Rajshahi University Professor S Taher Ahmed murder case.
The death row convict is Dr Mia Mohammad Mohiuddin, former associate professor of Rajshahi University’s Geology and Mining department.
Chamber judge Borhan Uddin passed the order on Tuesday following the convict’s review petition seeking reconsideration of the judgment given by the Appellate Division upholding the death sentence.
The court also fixed November 17 for hearing of the review petition in the regular bench of the Appellate Division.
Now Mohiuddin's death sentence will remain suspended until this period, said convict’s counsel Lawyer SM Shahjahan.
Additional Attorney General Sheikh Mohammad Morshed and Assistant Attorney General M Saiful Alam represented the state.
Meanwhile, two separate review petitions were filed by another death row convict Md Jahangir Alam, caretaker of Professor S. Taher’s residence, and lifer Abdus Salam, relatives of caretaker Jahangir Alam, which will be presented at the Chamber court soon.
On April 5, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court upheld the High Court’s death sentence of two convicts, including Mohiuddin, and life imprisonment of two others in the murder case.
A bench of six justices, led by Chief justice Hasan Foez Siddique, passed the order, rejecting the appeal of the defence in this case.
The other death row convict of the case is Md Jahangir Alam while the two lifers are Nazmul Alam and Abdus Salam, relatives of caretaker Jahangir Alam.
Prof Taher’s body was recovered from a drain near his residence, two days after he went missing on February 1, 2006.
On February 3, a murder case was filed at Motihar police station in Rajshahi, following a complaint lodged by his son Sanzid.
A Rajshahi Speedy Trial Tribunal on May 22, 2008, sentenced to death the four accused.
The tribunal also acquitted two persons, including former RU Chhatra Shibir president Mahbubul Alam Salehi.
Later on May 13, 2013, the High Court upheld the death penalty of Mohiuddin and Jahangir, but sentenced Salam and Nazmul to imprisonment until death.
After the order, the convicts moved the apex court.
30 gold bars recovered from airport dustbin
A preventive team of customs house recovered 30 gold bars weighing around 3.48 kg in an abandoned from a dustbin at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on Thursday.
Sources at the airport said officials of the team spotted an object in abandoned condition in a dustbin kept near Bay No. 12 of the airport at around 9:30 am.
Later, 30 gold bars worth Tk 3.50 crore were recovered from it, said customs official Nafis Amin Rizvi.