Verdict in case against teachers, students Jan 21

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The verdict of the case against four Dhaka University (DU) teachers and 15 students for violating the Emergency Power Rules (EPR) at TSC, Institute of Fine Arts and Nilkhet Police Camp in August last year will be pronounced on January 21.

Meanwhile, the hearing on arguments of the second case against the same accused for breaching the EPR on the DU campus will be held the same day.

The prosecution appealed to the courts for delivering verdict of the cases quickly considering those as of state importance.

After completion of arguments from both the prosecution and the defence, Metropolitan Magistrate Habibur Rahman Siddiqui set the date for delivering verdict of the case.

During the arguments, defence lawyers of the four detained DU teachers and a student told the court that the prosecution failed to prove the charges brought against their clients in the first information report (FIR), the charge sheet and statements of the witnesses.

The court had recorded statements of 16 prosecution witnesses including the complainant and investigation officer (IO) of the case.

The defence lawyers said although the names of their clients were not included in the FIR, the IO included their names in the charge sheet to harass them.

Moreover, the witnesses who had given statements during trial could not identify any of the detained four teachers and the student.

The lawyers said the prosecution did not produce any independent witnesses and the witnesses who appeared before the court were influenced by the law enforcement agencies.

On the other hand, the prosecution told the court that the charges brought against the accused were proved beyond doubt.

The accused are Dhaka University Teachers’ Association (Duta) President Prof Sadrul Amin, General Secretary Prof Anwar Hossain, Science Faculty Dean Prof Harun-ar-Rashid, Applied Physics Department Chairman Prof Neem Chandra Bhowmik and a student Moniruzzaman Sardar.

Meanwhile, Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Golam Rabbani fixed January 21 for the hearing on arguments from the prosecution and the defence of another case against the same accused.

Earlier, the court had recorded statements of 12 prosecution witnesses including complainant and the IO of the case.

The cases were filed against 5,000 to 6,000 unnamed DU students and teachers along with outsiders. However, the police pressed charges against only four DU teachers and 15 students on September 9.

Advocate Syed Rezaur Rahman, Masud Ahmed Talukder, Abdul Mannan Khan, Shafiul Basar Bhandari and Mosleuddin Jasim defended the accused in both the cases.

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