The hearing on the 10 trucks of arms haul cases was held before the court of the judge of Special Tribunal-1 S M Mujibur Rahman today. The lawyers of the accused have been continuing the cross examination of Moniruzzaman Chowdhury, the Investigation Officer (IO) of the 10 trucks of arms haul cases and Senior ASP of the CID today. The IO of the cases Moniruzzaman Chowdhury could not answer the lawyers of the accused today. He could not even remember the name of the ship which carried the arms and owners of the ship during the cross examination today.
Advocate Mohammed Tarek, the lawyer of Deen Mohammed quizzed Moniruzzaman Chowdhury and he felt embarrassed during the cross examination as he could neither name the owner nor the ship.
Advocate Fazlul Karim, lawyer of Mohoshin Talukdar, Advocate Biswajit Das, lawyer of absconded accused Nurul Amin and Poresh Barua also completed the cross examination of the IO today. Later, lawyer of Matiur Rahman Nizami started to cross examine the IO today. The court adjourned till tomorrow without completing the cross examination of Moniruzzaman Chowdhury.
It may be mentioned that Advocate Mahamudur Rahman, the lawyer of the prime accused Hafijur Rahman and Enamul Haque cross examined the IO of the cases earlier.
Advocate Mahamudur Rahman alleged that the IO tortured Hafijur Rahman and compelled him to give confessional statement under section 164 during the cross examination. But, the IO of the cases denied the allegation and claimed that Hafijur Rahman recorded his confessional statement under section 164 without any influence.
Earlier, Moniruzzaman Chowdhury said in his testimony, “After examining the statements of 20 persons including the high officials of the government, I have confirmed that the then state minister for home Lutfuzzaman Babor, Industry minister Moulana Matiur Rahman Nizami, additional secretary of Industry Ministry Nurul Amin and ULFA leader Poresh Barua were involved with the arms smuggling, unloading and transporting.”
“Later, I had submitted the charge sheets including 11 more persons accusing them for their involvement with the arms smuggling, unloading and transporting.”
Today, 11 freshly charged accused were present at the court. But, two absconded accused ULFA leader Poresh Barua and former secretary of Industry Ministry Nurul Amin were absent.
-With The Independent input
