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Download PDF The High Court (HC) yesterday ordered immediate release of innocent Shah Alam Babu from jail, saving him from walking the gallows.
He was wrongly identified as Sundar Babu, the main accused in a murder case, and sentenced to death by a lower court in Dhaka in 2004.
The HC delivered its verdict on completion of hearing of the death reference and appeal in the case.
It also ordered stripping lower court judge Shamsul Alam Khan of judicial powers as he illegally awarded death penalty to innocent Shah Alam Babu, mentioning him as Sundar Babu, on August 18, 2004.
A death reference bench of the HC comprising Justice Iman Ali and Justice AKM Fazlur Rahman directed the government and police authorities to take stern action against investigation officer (IO) of the case Rezaul Karim.
He accused Shah Alam Babu in the charge sheet despite the absence of minimum evidence and witnesses against him in the investigation, it said.
The HC ordered bringing Sundar Babu to trial.
He is the main accused in the Liaqat murder case.
Gazi Liaqat Hossain, a leader of transport workers, was shot dead at his house at Sutrapur on March 14, 1998. Rezaul Karim investigated the case and submitted charge sheet.
The media had earlier reported that IO Rezaul Karim, now officer-in-charge of Hazaribagh Police Station, had put Shah Alam Babu in place of Sundar Babu in the murder case to take revenge against him for a dispute over money.
Even Liaqat’s wife Rokeya Begum had testified in the lower court that Shah Alam Babu was not among the killers of her husband, nor was he accused in the case.
After a lengthy hearing, Third Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge Shamsul Alam Khan awarded death penalty to three persons, including Shah Alam Babu, and life imprisonment to five others.
Now Khan is District and Sessions Judge of Bagherhat.
Police arrested Shah Alam Babu one month before delivery of the lower court verdict and has been in jail since then.
The HC yesterday upheld the death sentence of Shahid Jabed Goira in the case. The other who got death penalty — Ismail Molla — died in jail earlier.
The court also upheld life term of four convicts — Shajahan, Shahadat, Montu and Shamim and acquitted one, Yunus Molla.
Advocate SM Rezaul Karim moved for Shah Alam Babu in the HC while Advocate Md Abdur Razzak assisted him. Deputy Attorney General Fahima Nasrin and Assistant Attorney General Jamil Akter Elahi moved for the government.
Earlier, the HC had issued a rule regarding wrong conviction of Shah Alam Babu, and human rights organisations moved for the cause.
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