The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Sunday upheld the death sentences of three ultra-left outfit operatives for killing four leaders of the Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal including its president Kazi Aref Ahmed at a rally in Kalidaspur village under Daulatpur upazila in Kushtia on February 16, 1999.
On August 5, 2008, a High Court bench of Justice AKM Fazlur Rahman and Justice ATM Fazle Kabir affirmed the death sentences of nine out of the 10 people, who were given the capital punishment by the trial court on August 30, 2004.
The convicts were reportedly members of the Gana Bahini, an aberrant offshoot of the JSD, and blamed for killing scores of people over the years in Kushtia and neighbouring areas, known as a stronghold of communist outlaws.
The High Court also acquitted 12 others, who were jailed for life by the trial court, of the charges.
Five of the nine who were sentenced to death, are on the run, while the remaining one did not file any appeal with the Appellate Division against his death sentence upheld by the High Court, additional attorney general Momtaj Uddin Fakir told New Age.
The eight-member Appellate Division bench chaired by the chief justice, Md Muzammel Hossain, dismissed the petitions filed by the three – Eliach Hossain, Rashedul Islam (popularly known as Zhantu), and Anwar Hossain –seeking permission to appeal against the High Court verdict that had affirmed their death sentences.
The five of the convicts on the run are Mannan Mollah, Mohammad Baer, Raushan Ali, Jahan, and Jalal.
The ninth condemned convict, Shafayet Hossain, also known as Habib, who had filed an appeal with the High Court against his conviction, however, did not make any appeal to the Appellate Division, said Momtaj Uddin.
The Appellate Division, also set today for passing its order on another petition filed by the government against acquittal of two convicts – Rafa and Sohir Uddin.
Sohir was among the 10 people sentenced to death by the trial court and Rafa among the 12 people sentenced to life imprisonment but the High Court acquitted them of the murder charges.
The court also dismissed three other petitions, involving 10 people, filed by the government against their acquittal by the High Court, said the additional attorney general.
According to the prosecution, the assailants sprayed Kazi Aref with bullets as he was about to leave the rostrum after delivering a speech against political violence in a rally.
JSD Kushtia district unit president Lokman Hossain and general secretary Yakub Ali and activists Israil Hossain and Shamser Mandal also died while trying to save the valiant freedom fighter.
The police filed a murder case with Daulatpur police station the same day.
Source : New Age
