Dhaka: The hearing of the leave to appeal against the High Court (HC) verdict, which cleared all the accused in the August 21 grenade attack, 2004 case, will be held on May 6. A three-member bench of the Appellate Division (AD) of the Supreme Court (SC) led by Justice Zubayer Rahman Chowdhury passed the order fixing the date for hearing upon a petition of the state.
According to Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha, earlier on December 1, the HC announced the verdict acquitting all the accused in the case, stating that the charge sheet upon which the trial court held the trial was not acceptable as per the law upon hearing of the death references and appeal. This led to the HC order annulling the trial court’s verdict.
The grenade attack on a rally of Awami League at the capital city’s Gulistan area on August 21, 2004, resulted in 24 deaths and several hundred injuries. Two separate cases-one for murder and one under the Explosive Substances Act-were registered with Motijheel Police Station in connection with the incident.
The trial of the case commenced with the submission of the charge sheet by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) during the caretaker government’s tenure in 2008. Following a reinvestigation after Awami League assumed power in 2009, a supplementary charge sheet included 30 more names, including BNP’s Acting Chairman Tarique Rahman.
On October 10, 2018, Dhaka’s Speedy Trial Tribunal-1 Judge Shahed Nur Uddin delivered the verdict. The court awarded death penalties to former state minister for home Lutfuzzaman Babar, ex-deputy minister for education Abdus Salam Pintu, and 17 others, while life term imprisonment was given to 19 others, including Tarique Rahman, with various jail terms for 11 others.
Out of the convicted individuals, 18 remain at large, while 31 are currently in custody.