The High Court on Monday observed that investigation officer in Narayanganj seven-murder case can conduct further investigation if he obtains evidence against anyone and it does not require any permission.
The court observed that the charge sheet in the case had no mention of criminal conspiracy to prosecute.
‘We notice sufficient disclosure of the ingredients of criminal conspiracy while the mischief of section 120B of penal code, as the abduction and murder took place pursuant to an organized scheme or agreement. But the investigation officer did not incorporate section 120B of penal code in the police report recommending prosecution,’ observed the court.
The bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Amir Hossain came up with the observation while passing order on a petition seeking further investigation into the killing of seven people after abduction in Narayanganj in April 2014 and interrogation of prime accused Noor Hossain.
The court also observed that the district and sessions judge of Narayanganj shall not be precluded to pay cognizance of the offence of criminal conspiracy in the abduction and murders and the court should apply judicial mind on the issue of criminal conspiracy alongside trying abduction and murder.
Selina Islam Beauty, wife of victim the then Narayanganj panel mayor Nazrul Islam, filed the petition seeking further investigation into the case as the charge sheet dropped five people named in the first information report.
The petitioner had sought the further investigations for interrogating Noor Hossain as he had fled to India after the murders and was brought back to Bangladesh after submission of the charge sheet.
It said that the charge sheet gave an account of a series of conversations over mobile phones between prime accused Noor Hossain and sacked Rapid Action Battalion officers — Tareque Sayeed Mohammad, Arif Hossain and MM Rana — after the abductions leading to the murders.
The charge sheet pressed charges against 35 people, including 21 from Rapid Action Battalion.
All the victims, including Nazrul and lawyer Chandan Sarker, were abducted immediately after they came out of a court in Narayanganj on April 27, 2014.
Their bodies were later found floating in the Shitalakkhya River.’
Source: New Age
