Staff Reporter:
The High Court (HC) yesterday commuted sentences of 10 people convicted by the lower court con-cerned in the case lodged over the 2001 Ramna Batamul bomb attack that killed 10 people.
A High Court division bench of Justice Mustafa Zaman Islam and Justice Nasreen Akter pronounced the judgment, rejecting death reference, dismissing their appeals, but modifying their sentences.
Of the convicts, the High Court commuted death sentence of Md Tazuddin to life imprisonment, while commuted death sentences of Akbar Hossain, Arif Hasan, Hafez Jahangir Alam Badar, Abu Bakar alias Hafej Selim Hawlader, Abdul Hai and Shafikur Rahman to 10-year imprisonment. It also commuted life imprisonment of Sabbir, Sheikh Farid and Abu Taher to 10-year jail. The High Court also fined them Taka 50,000 each.
The High Court on February 18 kept the date of the judgment on CAV, Curia Advisari Vult (a Latin legal term meaning court awaits verdict).
Senior Advocates SM Shahjahan and Sarwar Ahmed and Advocate Mohammad Shishir Manir argued for the defence, while Deputy Attorney General Sultana Akter Rubi stood for the state.
A total of 10 people were killed in a bomb attack on Chhayanat’s Bangla New Year celebrations at Ram-na Batamul on April 14, 2001. Police filed two cases, one for murder and another under the Explosives Substances Act, with the Ramna Police Station on the same day.
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) filed the charge sheet against 14 people in the two cases on November 30, 2008.
Dhaka 2nd Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge on June 23, 2014, convicted and sentenced eight people, including Harkatul Jihad (Huji) leader Mufti Hannan to death and six others to life imprison-ment in the murder case.
The death references of the death row convicts and jail appeals later came to the High Court for hearing. The Explosives Substance Act case, however, is still under trial at the Dhaka 1st Speedy Trial Tribunal.
