A special tribunal in Chittagong yesterday rejected bail to six people, including Jamaat-e-Islami chief Motiur Rahman Nizami, in two cases relating to smuggling of 10-truck arms seven years ago.
The arms were loaded on the trucks at the jetty of the state-run Chittagong Urea Fertilizer Ltd (CUFL) under the cover of darkness before being seized by police on April 2, 2004.
The haul, largest ever in the country, was reportedly destined for rebels of Indian separatist group United Liberation Front of Assom (Ulfa).
On the first day of the hearing yesterday, pandemonium broke out as acting Judge Golum Sarwar of Chittagong Metropolitan Special Tribunal-1 rejected the bail prayers amid shouts and protests by defence lawyers.
The five others whose bail petitions were rejected yesterday were Brig Gen (retd) Abdur Rahim, former director general (DG) of National Security Intelligence (NSI); Mohsin Talukder, former managing director of CUFL; Enamul Hoque, former CUFL general manager (admin); Akbar Hossain Khan, former NSI field officer, and Deen Mohammad.
Motiur Rahman Nizami and another accused, former state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar, were among those produced before the court yesterday. Babar did not seek bail.
The court fixed August 8 as the next date for hearing in the two cases.
It also asked the authorities to submit reports on the arrest warrant for two newly charge-sheeted accused--Ulfa leader Paresh Barua and former additional secretary of industries ministry Nurul Amin--both of whom are absconding.
The court asked the officer-in-charge of Mohammadpur Police Station in Dhaka to explain why he failed to submit report by the scheduled hearing yesterday on its previous order to arrest Nurul Amin.
On June 29, the same court took the two separate supplementary charge sheets into cognisance and ordered arrest of Barua and Amin. It also asked to attach their properties.
The court asked to produce before it all the accused in the cases and to submit report on the absconding two.
As no report on the previous order regarding the two accused was submitted till the hearing, the court fixed August 8 to submit the reports, said Chittagong court sources.
Public Prosecutor Kamal Uddin Ahmad told The Daily Star that they are not so much concerned about the police report on Paresh Barua since he is a foreigner.
But police should have submitted the report about Nurul Amin, said the PP. He put the blame on Mohammadpur Police Station OC.
"If the report was submitted by today [Monday], we could have taken another step of publishing the report on newspapers. The negligence of the OC caused delay in the trial since we have to wait for the report till the next hearing."
Just before the court proceedings started, the 11 accused, including nine newly and two previously charge-sheeted, were produced before the court around 11:20am.
Around one hundred pro-BNP-Jamaat lawyers who entered the courtroom at the same time instantly started shouting to provide chairs for the accused to sit while the 11 sat on the benches kept for lawyers and audiences, said courtroom sources.
Especially, the pro-Jamaat lawyers several times shouted terming the case politically motivated and mockery, creating chaos during the hearing. They said pressing charges against Nizami in the case is political harassment.
The judge and senior lawyers several times tried to calm them as the proceedings were hampered.
Several Jamaat leaders including Jamaat lawmaker of Satkania constituency Shamsul Islam Chowdhury and former lawmaker Shahjahan Khan were seen standing beside Nizami and talking to him all the time during the hearing, said the sources.
Nizami was seen asking the Jamaat leaders to know when the next date for hearing would be fixed and whether they would be produced before the court again that day.
Former NSI field officer Akbar Hossain Khan, another accused, was seen talking over a mobile phone provided by a lawyer. After one minute or so, a policeman snatched the phone and returned it to the lawyer.
Public Prosecutor Kamal Uddin Ahmad told the court that the trial would be hampered if defence lawyers don't behave. He hoped the court would take steps to stop chaos.
HEARING
Defence lawyer Advocate Tarique Ahmed said the supplementary charge sheets were incomplete and inconsistent.
He argued that former Army Chief General (retd) Moin U Ahmed who was the then general commanding officer (GOC) of 24th Infantry Division should be the prime accused in the cases since he had the main control over the intelligence departments like NSI and DGFI.
"But Moin was not made an accused or witness and even he was not interrogated," argued the lawyer blaming the investigators for hiding his role in the charge sheet.
The court took the charge sheets into cognisance earlier without giving the defence lawyers any chance to argue against it.
The public prosecutor denied the allegations as irrelevant as the investigation was complete and the charge sheet was already taken into cognisance by the court.
The court then heard the bail petitions of six of the accused including Nizami, who was the industry minister when the sensational arms haul occurred.
Taking part in the argument, Nizami's lawyer Manjur Ahmad Ansary said his client was innocent and charged on political motive. He should be freed on bail, the lawyer said.
The state lawyer Kamal opposed the prayer arguing that the involvement of top officials of industries ministry including the then minister in unloading the huge cache of arms at a jetty of the ministry-run CUFL was found in the investigation.
He said the then additional secretary of the ministry Nurul Amin stayed at a CUFL rest house that night though he had no official purpose to visit the place.
Liakat Ali Noor, lawyer of Akbar Hossain, in his argument on the bail prayer alleged the investigators tortured his client on two-term remand and forced Akbar to give confessional statement.
Source : The Daily Star
