Court Correspondent :
A Dhaka court on Sunday asked police to submit by October 15 the probe report of a case filed against deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and six others over the death of grocery shop owner Abu Saeed in police firing in Dhaka’s Mohammadpur area during the quota reform protests on July 19.
Dhaka’s Metropolitan Magistrate Md Zaki Al Farabi set the date after Md Moktaruzzaman, an inspector of Detective Branch of Police and also the Investigation Officer of the case, failed to submit any report of the case on Sunday.
The other accused are- Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader, former Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan, former Inspector General of Police Chowdhury Abdullah Al Mamun, former DB Chief Harun Or Rashid, former DMP Commissioner Habibur Rahman, and former DMP Joint Commissioner Biplob Kumar Sarker.
This is the first case lodged against Hasina after she resigned and went to India amid the mass uprising on August 5. On August 13, SM Amir Hamza Shatil, a resident of Mohammadpur area, filed the murder case with the court of Dhaka’s Metropolitan Magistrate Rajesh Chowdhury.
After the hearing, the court on that day recorded the complainant’s statement and directed Officer-in-Charge of Mohammadpur Police Station to register the complaint as a First Information Report (FIR).
Several unnamed top police officials and other government officials have also been accused in the case, said Mamun Mia, a lawyer for the complainant.
The complainant was not any relative of the victim, he filed the case voluntarily, he added.
In his complaint, Shatil mentioned that Saeed was killed around 4:00pm on July 19 when police were firing indiscriminately on the protesters, following the accused people’s directives.
Former Home Minister Asaduzzaman ordered police to open fire on the demonstrators, read the complaint.
The victim’s family members, who are very poor, live in Boda Upazila of Panchagarh. They do not have the ability to file the case, Shatil mentioned in the complaint.
Sheikh Hasina is now facing 170 cases, including 158 for murder, seven for crimes against humanity and genocide, three for abduction, six for attempted murder and one for attack on a BNP procession.
Abdullah Al Mamun and Dipu Moni were also arrested in connection with the case, and they were placed on different terms of remand.