A High Court bench on Sunday delivered a dissenting verdict in the Jhenidah blast case in connection with the synchronised bomb attacks across the country by banned Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) on August 17, 2005.
Senior Judge of the HC bench Justice Syed Muhammad Ziaul Karim acquitted all 21 convicted by the trial court, saying charges brought against them were not found to be proved.
Junior Judge of the bench Justice Abdur Rab, however, acquitted seven accused and gave life imprisonment to the rest.
The trial court in Jhenidah on February 28, 2006 convicted all 21 accused JMB activists and sentenced them to death in the case filed with Jhenidah police on August 17, 2005.
Bomb attacks were carried out at six places in the district town including the District Judge's Court premises leaving Russell, an eight-year-old child, injured.
In the unprecedented scale of terror attacks, the militant group simultaneously blasted at least 459 time bombs in 63 districts killing two people.
The blasts were the first terror attack in the country by any Islamist militant group claiming its responsibility that drew attention across the world and sent a chill through the nation.
Attorney General Mahbubey Alam told The Daily Star this is the first case among the several hundreds of its kind in connection with the August 17 serial blasts that has been disposed of by the HC.
Justice Abdur Rab, who acquitted the seven accused, explained they were not implicated in the charge sheet pressed by the police. He also reduced the sentence of others capital punishment to life term imprisonment considering their minor age.
The HC bench delivered the split verdicts after holding hearing on the death reference of the case and jail appeals filed by the accused against their conviction.
Deputy Attorney General Abdul Mannan Mohon told The Daily Star the case and its verdicts will be sent to the chief justice, who would form a third bench of the HC for final disposal of the case.
Advocate Kazi Ahsanullah and some other lawyers appeared for the accused, while Deputy Attorney General Mohon and assistant attorneys general M Moniruzzaman Rubel, Osman Gani and Mahbubey Alam represented the government.
Source : The Daily Star
