Appeal hearing in Bishwajit murder case set for December 8 by the Appellate Division
The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court has fixed December 8 for the appeal hearing in the case over the hacking to death of tailor Bishwajit Das in Old Dhaka. Justice Md Rezaul Haque of the chamber court of the Appellate Division set the date on Monday (October 19) following an application by the state.
Attorney General Barrister Md Ruhul Quddus Kajol confirmed the court's decision. The state had earlier applied to the Appellate Division for an expeditious hearing of the appeal in this case; the application came up on Monday's cause list, and after the hearing the court fixed December 8.
The incident took place on December 9, 2012. During a blockade programme of the BNP-led 18-party alliance, Bishwajit Das was hacked and beaten to death near Bahadur Shah Park in Old Dhaka. The broad-daylight killing in public sparked widespread outrage across the country.
According to the case details, Bishwajit was on his way from his home in Lakshmibazar to his shop in Shankharibazar that day when a group of Chhatra League activists beat him and struck him with sharp weapons. He ran to save his life but fell at the mouth of the Shankharibazar road.
Rickshaw-puller Ripon later took Bishwajit to Mitford Hospital on his rickshaw, where doctors declared him dead. Bishwajit was the son of Ananta Das of Daspara in Bhojeshwar village under Naria upazila of Shariatpur. A case was filed at Sutrapur police station the same day, and it was later transferred to a speedy trial tribunal.
After investigation, on March 5, 2013, the Detective Branch (DB) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police submitted a charge sheet against 21 leaders and activists of the Jagannath University unit of Chhatra League. During the investigation, accused Shakil, Shaon and Nahid said in confessional statements before the court that Shakil had a machete and Rajon a dagger at the time of the incident, while the others carried rods and sticks.
On December 18, 2013, Judge ABM Nizamul Haque of Dhaka's Speedy Trial Tribunal-4 delivered the verdict, sentencing eight of the 21 accused to death and 13 to life imprisonment.
Each of those sentenced to life was also fined Tk 20,000, with one more year of rigorous imprisonment in default. In addition, on a separate charge of unlawful assembly, the 13 were sentenced to six months' imprisonment and fined Tk 500 each, with a further 15 days of rigorous imprisonment in default of payment.
After the trial court's verdict, the death references of the condemned accused came before the High Court, while the convicts appealed against their death sentences. After hearing the death references and the appeals, on August 6, 2017, the High Court upheld the death sentences of Rafiqul Islam Shakil and Rajon Talukder.
In the same verdict, Saiful Islam and Kaiyum Mia were acquitted of the death sentence. The death sentences of Mahfuzur Rahman Nahid, Emdadul Haque Emdad, GM Rashed Shaon and Mir Nur-e-Alam Limon were commuted to life imprisonment.
AHM Kibria and Golam Mostafa, who had received life imprisonment from the trial court, were acquitted by the High Court. The life sentences of 11 other accused — Khandaker Yunus Ali, Tareq Bin Zohor Tamal, Alauddin, Obaidul Quader Tahsin, Imran Hossain, Azizur Rahman, Al Amin Sheikh, Rafiqul Islam, Monirul Haque Pavel, Kamrul Hasan and Mosharraf Hossain — were upheld; they had not appealed to the High Court.
Lawyers for both the state and the accused appealed against the High Court verdict. After a long interval, the state has now taken the initiative for an expeditious hearing of those appeals, leading to Monday's fixing of the date.
The final outcome of this much-discussed murder case, now nearly 14 years old, will depend on the Appellate Division's decision at the December 8 hearing — the date toward which all concerned parties will now be looking.
