DU teachers’ ordeal drags on as charges framed again

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Another Dhaka court yesterday framed charges against four teachers and 15 students of Dhaka University (DU) of breaching the emergency power rules during the August violence on campus.

The same day two Rajshahi University (RU) teachers and an official were acquitted on charges of torching a DGFI vehicle on August 22 while 10 students and an employee of the university were sentenced to three years’ rigorous imprisonment.

In Dhaka, Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Habibur Rahman Siddiqui set December 19 for recording statements of the witnesses. Before that, he read out details of the charges. Five of the accused were in the dock yesterday while 14 others were absconding.

The court rejected the discharge petitions filed by the four detained DU teachers and a student.

Only a day before, similar charges were framed against them by Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Golam Rabbani and December 17 was set for trial of the case to begin.

The courts framed charges against the teachers and students at a time when their unconditional release has been widely expected. Earlier on Saturday, in a bid to defuse tension on the campus, the government assured the university community that the detainees would be released in two weeks.

Following a presidential clemency, four RU teachers, each sentenced to two years in jail for bringing out a procession violating emergency rules, were freed on Monday.

But the government has yet to make any move to withdraw the case filed against the DU teachers and students. Many fear that the detainees might not be released before completion of trial as the government is likely to opt for the procedure it followed in case of the RU teachers.

Legal experts and academics observed that the way the government is now trying to settle the matter suggests that it wants to establish first that the teachers and students have committed an offence by staging demonstrations in August so that none in future dares to do something similar.

“A dignified solution has been reached for the Rajshahi University teachers. The same needs to be done here for the Dhaka University teachers,” Law Adviser Mainul Hosein said on Tuesday.

The DU teachers, however, have expressed frustration over the charge framing and said it might take longer than what they had expected to have their colleagues and students freed and it all might lead to an uneasy situation on the campus.

The family members of the detainees have already refused to accept a proposal for filing bail petition, saying they want the teachers to be released with dignity as promised by the government.

CHARGE FRAMING
DU Teachers Association (Duta) President Prof Sadrul Amin, General Secretary Prof Anwar Hossain, Social Science Faculty Dean Prof Harun-or-Rashid, Applied Physics Department Chairman Prof Neem Chandra Bhowmik and student Moniruzzaman were brought to the court at 11:00am under tight security.

The case was filed with Shahbagh Police Station against some 4,000 unnamed students, teachers and outsiders for vandalism, obstruction and attack on the law enforcers on duty at different points across DU campus on August 22.

Moving the discharge petitions, the defence argued that their clients were implicated in the case as part of a conspiracy to harass them and that their names were not in the first information report (FIR). Only later were those included in the charge sheet.

The investigation officer (IO) of the case recorded statements of 29 prosecution witnesses including nine policemen during the course of investigation. No witness except the policemen said anything against their teachers.

Justice Habibur Rahman Khan’s probe report too says that the charges brought against the four teachers are not proved. He has also asked the government to be sympathetic towards them.

In no way could a university teacher commit the offences mentioned in the case and so they and others should be cleared of the charges, the lawyers added.

The prosecution opposed the arguments made by the defence and prayed for charges to be framed against the accused.

After the magistrate read out the charges against them, the DU teachers and student present in the court pleaded not guilty.

The 14 students on the run will be tried in absentia. The court issued warrants for their arrest.

They are DU unit Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) President Hasan Mamun and General Secretary Saiful Islam Firoz, JCD leader Kamrul Hasan Kochi, acting JCD president of Shamsunnahar Hall unit Tanjeen Chowdhury Lili, Rokeya Hall JCD President Shahinoor Nargis, Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) DU unit Vice-President Aparna Rani Pal, Rifat Hossain Jiku, Nazrul Islam Russell, Shamsul Kabir Rahat, Mitul, Aziz Hasan, Rokonuzzaman, Kamruzzaman and Anwar Hossain.

Police pressed charges against the accused on September 9. Advocates Syed Rezaur Rahman, Sahara Khatun, Porimal Chandra Guha, Khondaker Abdul Mannan and Masud Ahmed Talukder stood for the accused.

PROF ANWAR’S WORDS
Prof Anwar told the court that he has never committed any crime during his career spanning 36 years.

He said, “There is not a single incident which will indicate that I failed as a teacher or as a human being. However, it would not appropriate to say that there is not a single incident. In 1976, I along with my brother Colonel Abu Taher (Bir Uttam) and others were tried by a special military tribunal. My brother was hanged and I was sentenced to jail along with others. That was possible because the Special Military Tribunal was not an independent one and everyone knew that what was going on was a sham in the name of the law.

“Well, here I am again before a court of law facing another trial. The conditions however are very much different now. The judiciary is independent now after years of struggle. The judge before me has the opportunity to do what is right. He has been given the independence to give his verdict without intimidation or pressure.

“I swear with my hand across my heart that I have not done anything wrong during the incidents sparked off the Dhaka University. It was my moral duty to extend support to my students and if I ever get the opportunity to do it again I will. I did it in 1990 during the fall of Ershad, I did it in 2001 when the police entered Shamshunnahar Hall and beat up our female students. I did it again on August 20, 21, 22 and 23, 2007.”

RAJSHAHI
Our staff correspondent from Rajshahi adds: Rajshahi speedy trial court yesterday sentenced 10 RU students and an employee to three years’ rigorous imprisonment and fined them with Tk 5,000. They will suffer three months more in jail in case of defaulting to pay the fine.

Those acquitted–Dr Chowdhury Sarwar Jahan Sajal and Dr Golam Sabbir Sattar Tapu of geology and mining department, and Sadikul Islam, deputy chief information officer of RU Public Relations, were released from the Rajshahi Central Jail at 5:00pm.

The convicted students–Bangladesh Chhatra League RU unit secretary Ayenuddin, Dipayan Sarkar Dip, Mizanur Rahman Mithu, Sardar Ayaz, SM Fakrul Islam Raihan, Abu Sayem, Shamim Ahmed, Kazi Abdul Latif, Shakhawat Hossain, Aziz Bin Kamal Uzzal–were tried in absentia.

Along with them, Ataur Rahman, a driver of former RU vice chancellor Faisul Islam Faruki, was found guilty of the offence. He and the ones acquitted were present during delivery of the judgment at a jam-packed courtroom.

Following the campus violence on August 21 and 22, police filed four cases against 30 people including eight teachers and 21 students.

Trial of two cases has already ended while charge sheets against 11 other students in two other cases wait to be accepted by courts.

JUDGMENT SPEECH
In his speech, Ruhul Amin said the allegations and documents against the accused suggest that the two teachers were aware beforehand that the DGFI vehicle would enter the campus at 2:00pm and its engine would suddenly stall at the Paris Road crossing. It is absolutely implausible.

The prosecution tried to prove the charges on basis of a video cassette, pictures, mobile phone call list and 22 witnesses. But they did not take any initiative to identify those in the video footage and photos, he added.

The RU VC, pro-VC and proctor were present during the occurrence, still they were not made witnesses in the case. The prosecution also did not bother to place as evidence the sticks and bamboos alleged to have been used in the attack, the court observed.

Defence lawyers raised a number of questions and many of those were found to have been crucial and grounded in logic. They pointed out that the teachers, also key witnesses in RU professor S Taher Ahmed murder case, are victims of conspiracy by vested interests allied with the law enforcement agencies, he continued.

The prosecution submitted cellphone call registers of a period between 9:38am and 12:30pm, but the DGFI vehicle entered the campus at 2:15pm and the attack took place at 2:30pm.

The investigation officer could not prove that the teachers had incited the demonstrators to violence, said the judge.

Depositions of complainant and prosecution witnesses too bore contradictions. They said they watched the video footages on August 26 and 30, then how come the accused were identified on August 23, asked the court.

The prosecution witnesses said they were confined at the VC’s residence after the attack and then again, how come they claim to have shot the footages.

The court, however, concluded that the DGFI vehicle was in fact torched and the incident was filmed by an outsider. PR official Sadikul Islam had seized the footage on orders from the university authorities.

Additional Public Prosecutor Masum Ahmed Tipu and Court Sub-Inspector Shamsul Alam moved for the state while Golam Arif Tipu, Hamidul Haque and Mansur Ahmed for the defence.

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