Rafiqul Islam who was suspended as the officer-in-charge of the Motijheeel police and two others were on Wednesday sentenced to death on charge of killing college student Kamrul Islam Momin in 2005.
Dhaka speedy trial tribunal judge Mohammad Rezaul Islam convicted Rafiqul, Tareq alias Zia and Shakhawat Hossain Jewel to death sentences.
The court sentenced six others — Habibur Rahman Taj, Monir Howlader, Babu, Hasibul Haq Jony, Zafar Ahmed and Sharifuddin — to imprisonment to life imprisonment and fined each of them Tk 25,000.
The court pronounced the verdict in a jam-packed courtroom in the presence of Rafiqul, Habibur and Babu in the dock. The six other convicts are still in hiding.
According to the case records, Kamrul Islam Momin, 22, a student of Dhaka Commerce College and activist of Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal-backed student organisation Bangladesh Chhatra League, was shot dead near his house at Ibrahimpur in the capital on September 13, 2005.
Kamrul’s father Abdur Razzak filed a case with the Kafrul police the same day accusing Rafiqul and 27 others of killing Kamrul over previous enmity over the boundary of the house.
The Dhaka Metropolitan Police closed Rafiqul, the then Motijheel police officer-in-charge, on September 15, 2005 and suspended him on October 2, 2005 for not reporting to the Rajarbagh Police Lines.
Rafiqul was sent to jail after he had surrendered and sought bail in the case on October 16, 2005. He has been in jail custody since then.
The Criminal Investigation Department on May 13, 2007 submitted the investigation report dropping Rafiqul’s name from the charge sheet.
The plaintiff filed a petition with the court opposing the investigation report and seeking further investigation. The Dhaka metropolitan magistrate’s court on July 22, 2007 ordered reinvestigation of the case.
The Detective Branch then investigated the case and inspector Forman Ali submitted a fresh charge sheet to the Dhaka chief metropolitan magistrate’s court on March 4, 2008.
Kamrul’s father again opposed the charge sheet as it dropped the names of Rafiqul and 20 others and sought a judicial inquiry.
A Dhaka court on April 16, 2008 accepted the plaintiff’s petition and a no-confidence petition and ordered a judicial inquiry.
During the judicial inquiry, a metropolitan magistrate recorded statements of nine witnesses. The magistrate found Rafiqul’s involvement in the killing and sent the matter to the CMM for the next steps.
On receipt of the judicial inquiry report prepared by a metropolitan magistrate, the chief metropolitan magistrate, AKM Enamul Haque, on November 16, 2008 took cognisance of the charge sheet against Rafiqul and eight others.
Dhaka speedy trial tribunal judge Kaniz Akhtar Nasrina Khanam on October 5, 2010 framed charges against Rafiqul and the eight.
Speedy trial tribunal judge Mohammad Rezaul Islam on January 2, 2011 charged Rafiqul and Habibur Rahman Taj, also wanted by the police, with conspiring to kill Kamrul.
The court passed the order after special public prosecutor SM Rafiqul Islam had submitted a petition seeking inclusion of the accused as conspirators in the killing.
-With New Age input
