The Supreme Court on Tuesday adjourned till January 22 the hearing on an appeal filed against a High Court verdict that acquitted six former army personnel in the jail killing case.
A six-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Md Muzammel Hossain passed the adjournment order after hearing argument from Anisul Huq, principal state counsel for the case, and Attorney General Mahbub-e-Alam.
Citing the prosecution witnesses’ statement Anisul told the court that the conspiracy to kill the four national leaders in Dhaka Central Jail took place at Bangabhaban.
The then president Khandaker Mushtaq Ahmed had directed the then inspector general of prison to allow Muslemuddin and three others to enter the jail for killing the four national leaders, Anisul said quoting the statement of seven witnesses.
Three others who accompanied Muslemuddin are: Dafadar (dismissed) Marfat Ali Shah, Dafadar (dismissed) Abdul Hashem Mridha and (retd) Abdul Majed, added Anisul.
He also told the apex court that Ziaur Rahman, after coming to the state power on November 7 in 1975, had stopped all proceedings and investigations of the jail killing case.
He also argued that the High Court judgement which had acquitted six army persons was distorted and arbitrary.
In 2011, the government filed the appeal with the apex court challenging the HC verdict in the case filed for killing four national leaders — Syed Nazrul Islam, Tajuddin Ahmad, AHM Quamruzzaman and Captain Mansur Ali — inside the Dhaka Central Jail on November 3, 1975.
In November, last year, it submitted a statement to the SC, praying for upholding the lower court verdict that gave death penalty to three former army personnel and life term imprisonment to 12 others.
In 2004, the Metropolitan Sessions Judge’s Court of Dhaka sentenced to death Risalder (retd) Muslemuddin, Dafadar (dismissed) Marfat Ali Shah and Dafadar (dismissed) Abdul Hashem Mridha.
On August 28, 2008, the HC upheld the capital punishment of Muslemuddin and acquitted Marfat and Hashem. It also acquitted Farooq, Shahriar, Mohiuddin and Bazlul Huda.
On January 27, 2010, Farooq, Shahriar, Mohiuddin and Bazlul Huda were executed in the Bangabandhu assassination case.