A one-member judicial inquiry committee on Thursday found that
The six young men, who were beaten to death at Amin Bazaar in Savar early morning on July 18, were innocent students, not robbers, said the report of a one-member judicial committee on Thursday.
The report held the negligence of Savar police sub-inspectors Anwar and Haris in rescuing the students from the mob also responsible for the tragic end of their life, sources said.
The one-member judicial inquiry committee of Dhaka metropolitan magistrate Utpal Roy Chowdhury submitted the report to the Supreme Court registrar AKM Shamsul Islam on Thursday.
Dhaka chief metropolitan magistrate AKM Enamul Haque and Utpal Chowdhury went to the Supreme Court to submit the 232-page probe report.
Shamsul Islam told reporters that he received the report in a sealed cover and he would place it before the High Court bench which had ordered the judicial inquiry.
Concerned sources said that the probe committee gave detailed accounts of the incident and evidences in 32 pages, and the remaining 200 pages covers related documents including the depositions of the witnesses.
Asked about the report, Utpal Chowdhury told reporters that he could not share it with them as it was a subjudice matter.
He, however, said that report gave detailed accounts about the victims and the lone survivor of the mob action.
He said that the report covered all aspects of the incident.
On August 10 Dhaka chief metropolitan magistrate instituted the judicial probe in compliance with an order the High Court had issued on August 3.
The one man probe committee was asked to submit its report in 30 days.
A High Court bench of
Justice Farid Ahmed and Justice Sheikh Hassan Arif on August 3 asked the Dhaka chief metropolitan magistrate to assign a judicial magistrate to hold a judicial inquiry and to submit the report to it in a month.
Early morning on July 18, six young men, all students of reputed educational institutions in Dhaka, were beaten to death, by a group of more than a dozen local individuals, at Amin Bazaar. They died on the spot.
They included, Sitaf Jabi Munif, a student of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology.and Shams Rahim Shamam of Maple Leaf International School, Tipu Sultan of Tejgaon College, Towhidur Rahman Palash, Kamruzzaman Kanto and Ibrahim Khalil of Mirpur Bangla College.
Families and friends of the victims said they had gone on an outing to Keblar Char where a mob attacked them, apparently mistaking them for robbers.
But villagers alleged that they had surrounded the youths when they were preparing to commit robbery.
Soon after the incident, police filed a murder case against 500 to 600 unnamed villagers.
Besides, a local sand dealer, Abdul Malek, filed another case of robbery against the six victims with Savar police station.
The High Court ordered a judicial inquiry into the incident after hearing a writ petition filed by Supreme Court lawyer Tajul Islam, the secretary general of the National Forum for Protection of Human Rights.
The petitioner had sought a judicial inquiry into the incident.
Tajul told New Age on Thursday that he was unaware that the probe committee had submitted its report.
He, however, said the Supreme Court registrar and the magistrate told him that the probe committee found negligence of two sub- inspectors in rescuing the innocent students responsible for their deaths.
On July 21, the government appointed an inquiry committee comprising four police officers, headed by deputy inspector general of police Mohammad Amin Uddin, in response to a previous order the court had issued on July 20.
The same bench on July 20 directed the home affairs secretary, inspector general of police, Dhaka Metropolitan Police commissioner, the deputy commissioner and superintendent of the police of Dhaka, and the officers-in-charge of the Savar and Ashulia police stations to explain in 10 days why they should not be directed to take punitive action against the law enforcement personnel for whose inaction the lynching of the six students could take place.
They were also asked to explain why their inaction and failure to protect the six students of various reputed institutions in Dhaka, from the lynching should not be declared unlawful.
The court also asked the respondents to explain why they should not be directed to pay compensation to the families of the victims and the survivor of the incident.
The court had issued the previous directive after hearing a public interest litigation writ petition filed by Tajul Islam, challenging the government’s inaction during and after the shocking incident.
-With New Age input
