Bakhtiar Alam, Rony’s friend, who was with the Awami League lawmaker’s son during the shooting, has given judicial statement before a Dhaka court.
Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Mohammad Aminul Hoque recorded Kamal Mahmud’s statement on Wednesday afternoon.
Seeking anonymity, a senior official of the court told the Dhaka Tribune: “During the recording, Kamal informed the court that Rony was driving the car in a drunken condition and he opened fire on people.”
However, the Dhaka Tribune is yet to receive any official statement regarding Kamal’s judicial statement.
Earlier in the day, Kamal surrendered to Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Aminul Haque around 1pm and gave a 30-minute long judiciary statement. He earlier also provided a separate statement to the investigation officer, DB’s SI Dipak Kumar Das.
He described how Rony, son of Awami League lawmaker Pinu Khan, fired shots using his own licensed weapon. Rony was in an intoxicated state at the time, Kamal said, adding that he was in the car with Rony when the incident took place.
Meanwhile, Tanjir Ahmed, Rony’s elder brother, pleaded to the same court for giving him back the custody of the SUV that was seized by the police as evidence. The court then ordered the investigation officer to scrutinies the car documents and submit a report on this regard.
On Tuesday, a Dhaka court rejected the bail petition of Rony and sent him to jail.
On April 13, Yakub Sikder, the driver of a CNG-run auto-rickshaw of the daily Janakantha, and Abdul Halim, a rickshaw-puller, received bullet injuries when Rony fired at people indiscriminately in Dilu Road on that night.
Halim died on April 15 while Yakub succumbed to his injuries on April 23 while undergoing treatment at Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
Halim’s mother Monowara Begum filed the case with Ramna police station on April 15. It was then shifted to the Detective Branch of police on May 24.
Detectives arrested Rony from his Elephant Road residence on May 31. On June 1, a Dhaka court granted the DB police four days to interrogate Rony. After he pretended to be sick, interrogation finally began on June 9.
Source: Dhaka Tribune
