Dhaka: The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court (SC) today upheld a High Court verdict that acquitted all those convicted by a lower court in the two cases filed over the August 21, 2004, grenade attack. Dismissing the state's appeal against the High Court verdict, a six-member Appellate Division bench led by Chief Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed unanimously delivered the judgment, along with observations.
According to Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha, the apex court, on August 21, 2025, set today for pronouncing judgment in the murder and explosives substances cases filed over the grenade attack on an Awami League rally on Bangabandhu Avenue in the capital. Earlier, on June 1, 2025, the Appellate Division granted leave to appeal against the High Court verdict that acquitted all the convicts in the two cases.
The High Court on December 1, 2024, scrapped the lower court judgment in the two cases, delivering its verdict after hearing the death references, criminal, and jail appeals. Defence counsel Advocate Shishir Manir later told newsmen that the High Court observed the lower court trial was not held in accordance with the law, citing the lack of eyewitness examinations and reliance on a forced confessional statement which carried no evidential value.
At least 24 people were killed and many others injured in the grenade attack on August 21, 2004. On October 10, 2018, a Dhaka court sentenced 19 people to death, including former state minister for home Lutfuzzaman Babar, and awarded life imprisonment to another 19, including BNP acting chairman Tarique Rahman, in the murder case filed over the incident.
The death penalty convicts who were later acquitted included Lutfuzzaman Babar and Abdus Salam Pintu, among others. Besides Tarique Rahman, political figures acquitted of life sentences included former premier Khaleda Zia's political adviser Haris Chowdhury and ex-BNP lawmaker Qazi Shah Mofazzal Hossain Kaikobad. Two separate cases-one for murder and another under the Explosives Substances Act-were filed on August 22, 2004, over the attack. The police filed the charge sheet on June 9, 2008, and the court framed the charges on September 29, 2008.