Dhaka: The High Court (HC) today commuted sentences of 10 people convicted by the lower court concerned 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.
According to Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha, the High Court commuted the death sentence of Md Tazuddin to life imprisonment, while reducing the 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. Additionally, the life imprisonment sentences of Sabbir, Sheikh Farid, and Abu Taher were commuted to 10-year jail terms. The High Court also imposed a fine of Taka 50,000 on each of them.
The High Court had earlier, on February 18, reserved the date of the judgment under CAV, Curia Advisari Vult, a Latin legal term meaning the court awaits verdict. Senior Advocates SM Shahjahan and Sarwar Ahmed, along with Advocate Mohammad Shishir Manir, represented the defense, while Deputy Attorney General Sultana Akter Rubi stood for the state.
The bomb attack at Ramna Batamul on April 14, 2001, during Chhayanat's Bangla New Year celebrations, resulted in the deaths of 10 individuals. Police subsequently filed two cases on the same day, one for murder and another under the Explosives Substances Act, with the Ramna Police Station.
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) submitted the charge sheet against 14 individuals in the two cases on November 30, 2008. On June 23, 2014, the Dhaka 2nd Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge convicted and sentenced eight people, including Harkatul Jihad (Huji) leader Mufti Hannan, to death, while six others received life imprisonment in the murder case.
The death references of the convicts on death row and the jail appeals were later brought to the High Court for hearing. Meanwhile, the case under the Explosives Substance Act remains under trial at the Dhaka 1st Speedy Trial Tribunal.