SPECIALJustice on elusive witnesses' trail

Prakash Biswas
bdnews24.com senior correspondent

Dhaka, June 17 (bdnews24.com) ? Jalal Ahmed, an informer of the Detective Branch (DB) of Police, was killed 12 years ago, but the long wait of his family to get justice is not over yet.

Jalal's half decomposed body was recovered from the overhead water tank of DB's Minto Road headquarters on March, 25, 1999.

A probe reveals that the trial process of the case remained stalled for long nine years as the 20th state witness to the case, Iman Ali, a rickshaw-puller, refrained from appearing before the court after his testimony on Feb 4, 2003.

According to rules, a new witness cannot be asked for testimony until the previous witness's full testimony is complete.

Even the public prosecutor voiced frustration with the slow progress of the case, pending at the second additional sessions' court, Dhaka as the witnesses refrained from appearing before the court for issuing non-bailable arrest warrant against them.

Sheikh Baharul Islam, a lawyer for one of the accused in the case, Ziaul Ahsan, told bdnews24.com that former CID police superintendent Munshi Atiqur Rahman, also the investigation officer of the case, forced witness Iman Ali to give 'false' testimony in the court on Feb 4, 2003.

In the witness box, Iman Ali had said he knew nothing about the case while the judge noted in the case details that he failed to clearly understand what the witness muttered, Baharul said.

In response, he appealed in black and white that the statement of the witness in the court should be included in the order part of the case document. He also went to the High Court after the judge refused to entertain his appeal, Baharul added.

"The then judge and the public prosecutor were biased to the investigation officer," he claimed.

"I came to know that Iman Ali in fear of Munshi Atiq is not appearing before the court. No other witnesses were found in the last nine years to testify in the court after that day."

Meanwhile, five judges who dealt with the case have been changed and the case details keep accumulating due to various applications and appeals submitted by both the state and the accused.

The next date for hearing is June 22 and the previous date was March 10.

Allegations have it that Jalal was killed by a DB police officer.

"The witnesses couldn't be produced before the court despite our all-out efforts. I got frustrated about the trial process," Shah Jamal Liton, one of the assistant PPs, told bdnews24.com.

Jamal said non-bailable arrest warrants had been issued in the case against the investigation officer and the remaining state witnesses for not appearing before the court.

Additional PP Zahid Sarder said he could not remember the steps taken by the government to deal with the case.

According to the case details, Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DB) inspector Ziaul Ahsan used Jalal Ahmed as a source to collect information about illegal gold and drug smugglings from different areas of the city.

Tipped off by Jalal, the accused detained the smugglers and seized illegal goods.

As Jalal was 'deprived of his share', he changed his position and started providing information to the team members of Ziaul instead of Ziaul.

Ziaul got angry with him on March 13, 1999 as he provided information of a ring of gold smugglers of Dhaka International Airport to another DB team.

Later, Ziaul reportedly killed him on March 19 around 2:30pm on the rooftop of DB office after calling him out from his home and concealed the body into its overhead water tank with the help of other accused.

Sub-inspector of Ramna Police Station S M Ali Azam filed the first case the next day.

After a couple of days of the murder, the victim's son, Abbas Uddin, filed another case on April 4.

According to the case details, recording testimonies of the witnesses to the case began in mid 2001.

The accused of the case DB inspector Mohammad Ziaul Ahsan, havilder Mohammad Billal, constable Mohammad Abdur Rauf are on bail, while another accused, Anwar Hossain, died in 2008.

bdnews24.com/pb/aik/sam/1325h

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