Bangladesh News

The Criminal Investigation Department in 2002 gave final report in Sheikh Fazlul Haque Moni murder case and had it dismissed in secrecy, ignoring the legal bindings.

Neither the investigation officer nor the court concerned informed the complainant of the probe’s fate.

The law says the IO in a case must notify the complainant before submitting the investigation report. Likewise, it says, the court shall ask the complainant to appear before it and say if he has any objections to the final report or charge sheet.

Moni, a nephew of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was killed with his wife Arzu Moni in their Dhanmondi residence on August 15, 1975, the day a band of army men murdered Bangabandhu and most of his family.

Two sons of Moni–Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh, now a ruling Awami League lawmaker, and Sheikh Fazle Shams Parash–survived the attack by hiding themselves under the bed.

Taposh was three years and eight months old and Parash around seven years.

The same day, Abdur Rab Serniabat and family members were killed in their Minto Road residence. Besides, 14 people died in mortar fire in Mohammadpur.

Four separate cases were filed in connection with the killings.

When AL left office in 2001, Bangabandhu murder case was awaiting the Supreme Court’s judgment and Moni murder case under investigation.

Serniabat murder case proceedings have been stayed by the High Court since 2002. The First Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge’s Court framed charges against 18 people at the end of the AL rule in 2001.

The case for Mohammadpur killings is now pending at the Fourth Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge’s Court in Dhaka.

The BNP-Jamaat-led four-party alliance, which came to power in October 2001, did not take any initiative to complete the cases throughout its tenure.

Things were particularly grimmer for Moni killing case. Within 10 months in office, the BNP government had the case dismissed with the CID turning in final report.

Munshi Atiqur Rahman, former CID official and IO of the case, recently told The Daily Star he had informed the complainant about the final report.

Mohammad Shahabuddin, the complainant and a close aide to Sheikh Moni, however outright rejected the claim.

Munshi Atiq, then an assistant superintendent of police in CID, submitted the probe report on August 22, 2002. He dropped charges against all 30 accused in the case.

On December 30 that year, the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s (CMM) Court in Dhaka accepted the final report and acquitted all the accused, without notifying the complainant.

In his report, Munshi Atiq said he had submitted it in consultation with the higher authorities and the public prosecutor.

He explained he did not see any logic in continuing the investigation and pressing charges, as 18 of the 30 accused had already been convicted in Bangabandhu murder case, three died, and evidence had not been enough to bring charges against the rest.

The 18 accused were Lt Col Syed Farooqur Rahman, Lt Col Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan, Major Bazlul Huda, Major (lancer) AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed and Lt Col (artillery) Mohiuddin Ahmed, Lt Col Khandaker Abdur Rashid, Lt Col Shariful Haque Dalim, Lt Col SHMB Nur Chowdhury, Lt Col AM Rashed Chowdhury, Captain Abdul Mazed, Risaldar Moslehuddin Khan, Lt Col Abdul Aziz Pasha, Captain Kismat Hashem, Captain Nazmul Ansar, Major Ahmed Sharful Islam, Dafadar Marfat Ali Shah, ex-LD Abul Hashem Mridha, and former state minister for information Taher Uddin Thakur (died in February 2009).

Capt Mostafa, Risaldar Syed Sarwar Hossain and Khandaker Moshtaque Ahmed were the three accused who had died.

The rest nine were Maj Firoz, Captain Shahid, Captain Naqib, risaldars Anwara and Jalil, Maj Zobayer, Capt Nurul Haque, Capt Jahangir and Lt Hasan.

In the report, Munshi Atiq said the charges against 21 of the 30 accused including former president Khandaker Moshtaque Ahmed were primarily proved. He submitted the final report clearing the accused of charges, as they had been convicted earlier in the Bangabandhu murder case.

But all the accused in the Moni murder case had not been indicted in the Bangabandhu murder case. Only 12 of the 30 accused in the Moni case have been convicted in the Bangabandhu murder case.

The IO got evidence against 21 accused (excluding the three deceased) in the Moni murder case but at least six of them were cleared of the charges through the final report.

Besides, when the IO submitted the final report in 2002, the Bangabandhu murder case was still pending with the Supreme Court for final verdict.

It raises the question how the IO could clear Moni’s killers of charges mentioning them as convicts in Bangabandhu murder case over seven years before the final verdict in the case was delivered.

Arguing that all the accused went out of the cantonment with a common intention to commit the same offences, the IO said Moni murder case was part of the Bangabandhu murder case.

But according to the CrPC, if the accused in two separate criminal cases are the same, they have to be tried separately as the place and time of occurrence and victims are different.

However, there is an exception to it. If a court awards death sentence to an accused in a case and the prison authority executes the convict, the person will not be tried in any other case.

Munshi Atiq told The Daily Star that he informed the complainant, Mohammad Shahabuddin, about the final report but did not receive any reply from him.

He had submitted the final report as 18 accused in the case had earlier been awarded sentences in the Bangabandhu murder case. Moreover, the intentions of the accused in the case were similar to those of the indicted in the Bangabandhu murder case.

Shahabuddin told The Daily Star that Munshi Atiq did not inform him about submission of the final report in the case.

“I came to know about it after the pronouncement of the final verdict of the Bangabandhu assassination case in the Supreme Court on November 19,” Shahabuddin said.

The complainant said he was ready to file a petition with the home ministry for reviving the case. But he will decide on it after consulting the matter with Awami League lawmaker Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim and Moni’s son lawmaker Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh.

But advocate Mahbub Ahamad told The Daily Star that the submission of the final report in the Moni case was illegal because the victims and the places of occurrence in the two cases were different.

Sheikh Moni was the founding chairman of Awami Jubo League and also founding editor of now defunct Dainik Banglar Bani.

When the Awami League assumed power in 1996 and repealed the black indemnity ordinance, introduced by the then president Khandaker Moshtaque and later incorporated in the constitution by president Ziaur Rahman, two murder cases were filed in connection with the killings of the Bangabandhu and Moni family.

Shahabuddin filed a murder case with Dhanmondi Police Station after 21 years of the incident, accusing former state minister Taher Uddin Thakur and 15 former and serving army officials on November 20, 1996.

Later, the IO of the case indicted 14 more people for suspected links with the murder.

The then Metropolitan PP Abdullah Mahmud Hassan told The Daily Star that he gave opinions for submitting the final report as the accused and the witnesses in both the Moni and the Bangabandhu murder cases were the same.