A tribunal has set June 28 for its verdict in a crimes-against-humanity case over the killing of two people, including a young man shot while clinging to a cornice in Dhaka’s Rampura during the July uprising. The case has five accused in total, including former DMP commissioner Habibur Rahman.
A three-member judicial panel led by Justice Md. Golam Mortuza Mojumder, chairman of International Crimes Tribunal-1, set the date on Monday.
A second round of closing arguments was completed in the case that day. Lawyer Sarwar Jahan Nippon first presented arguments for the accused Chanchal Chandra Sarkar, claiming his client had no involvement in the incident. For the prosecution, Chief Prosecutor Aminul Islam sought the maximum punishment for all five accused. After arguments from both sides, the tribunal fixed the date for delivering the verdict.
Earlier, on June 10, Chanchal Chandra Sarkar, then an assistant sub-inspector (ASI) at the Rampura police outpost, gave defense testimony again. In his statement he also brought an allegation against a prosecutor. The accused first gave testimony on January 13 this year.
Apart from Chanchal, the others in the case are absconding. They are former DMP commissioner Habibur Rahman, former additional deputy commissioner of the Khilgaon zone Md. Rashedul Islam, former officer-in-charge of Rampura police station Md. Mashiur Rahman, and former sub-inspector of Rampura police station Tariqul Islam Bhuiyan.
The verdict in the case had earlier been scheduled for March 4. But the prosecution applied to submit new digital evidence. The first witness, Amir Hossain, who had given testimony, then had to testify again.
On September 18 last year, Tribunal-1 formally framed charges against the five and ordered the trial to begin. The prosecution had filed the formal charge on August 7.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report