Joj Miah, a petty criminal and vendor, lost four years of his life behind bars as he was falsely implicated in the August 21 grenade attack cases.
The then CID investigators, who forced the Noakhali youth to make false confessional statements regarding the grenade attack on an Awami League rally in the capital in 2004, have now been put on the supplementary charge sheets submitted on Sunday.
Implicating innocent Joj Miah is a classic example of how misdirected investigation leads a case nowhere and creates complications in probing a grisly attack that threatened the life of the then leader of the opposition in parliament Sheikh Hasina.
Talking to The Daily Star yesterday, Joj's mother Jobeda Khatun said sending of her son to jail in the August 21 cases has changed their life for ever and they left their home in Noakhali's Senbagh to escape social stigma.
Jobeda's second son Joj was picked up by local police in June 2005, nine months after the grenade attack on the opposition leader's rally, and was shown arrested. In subsequent months, officials of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), who were probing the case then, gleaned "statements" from Joj under duress. Indeed, he had no links whatsoever with the incident.
An innocent Joj suffered in jail for years until getting released in March 2009. But by the time he got cleared of the concocted accusations, his widowed mother Jobeda and younger and only sister Khosheda had suffered a lot due to financial hardship and social stigma.
After years of investigations, the CID submitted the supplementary charge sheets naming 30 other accused in the cases, and they included the then investigators -- CID special superintendent Ruhul Amin and assistant superintendents of police Abdur Rashid and Munshi Atiqur Rahman. The three had tried to falsely implicate poor Joj in the case.
For giving "false statements", the then CID investigators used to pay Joj's family Tk 2,500 a month during his absence.
Based on the statements by Joj and two others, the investigators even attempted to submit a charge sheet. But the government held it back following media flak.
ASP of CID Fazlul Kabir, who was appointed investigation officer (IO) of the grenade attack cases by the last caretaker government, filed a case on March 29, 2009 with Paltan police against the three retired CID officials on charges of misdirecting the case, destroying evidence and forcing people to make false statements to save the real culprits.
Jobeda said she has come to know about the fresh charge sheets in the cases. But she will not file any case against the then CID investigators for falsely implicating and harassing her son as her family cannot bear the expenses for it.
Jobeda had sold her very limited family assets at Noakhali's Senbagh and took refuge in a rented house in Gazipur last year.
"For the last six months, we have been living a tin-shed rented house in Narayanganj. I spent several thousand taka to get Joj trained in driving, and now we're desperately looking for a driving job for him," Jobeda said.
She also said a ruling party lawmaker had assured her of a job for Joj, and he appeared for a test about a month back. "We're now waiting to hear from him (lawmaker)."
Of the five siblings, Joj , his younger brother Saiful and lone sister Khosheda live with their mother. Two other brothers live with their families separately .
"Saiful works at a shop at Nababpur in Dhaka and Khosheda is doing some embroidery work. But it is so painstaking for us that whenever people learn about Joj, they link him with the August 21 incident and look down upon us."
She went on, "I'm now facing financial problems in getting my daughter married. If Joj now gets a job, it will be the biggest help for us."
Source : The Daily Star
