The Appellate Division on Thursday set September 4 to deliver its verdict on the government鈥檚 appeal against a High Court judgement that acquitted all 49 convicts in two cases filed over August 21, 2004 grenade attack on a rally of the Awami League on Bangabandhu Avenue in Dhaka.
The six-member bench, chaired by chief justice Syed Refaat Ahmed, set the date after the conclusion of hearing deputy attorney general Abdullah Al Mahmud Masud for three days and the defence counsels SM Shajahan and Mohammad Shishir Manir for two days.
One of the cases was lodged for killing 24 people, including senior AL leader Ivy Rahman, and the other was lodged under the Explosive Substances Act for the injuries of many others.
Sheikh Hasina, the then opposition leader and AL president, survived the attack but suffered hearing damage at a time when the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led alliance was in power.
The government pleaded for the cancellation of the High Court鈥檚 verdict to revive the sentences of the 49 individuals, while the defence counsels contended acquittals of all the accused to maintain the HC verdict.聽
The court earlier granted leave-to appeal petition against the High Court鈥檚 December 1, 2024 verdict that overturned the 2018 lower court verdict.
On October 10, 2018, the Dhaka Speedy Trial Tribunal 1 sentenced 19 individuals, including former Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led government鈥檚 state minister Lutfozzaman Babar to death, 19 people, including BNP acting chairman and former prime minister and BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia鈥檚 elder Tarique Rahman, to imprisonment for life term and 11 police officers to imprisonment for varying terms.
All the 34 detained individuals in both cases were released from jails on the High Court鈥檚 acquittal order, which came after the ouster of the Awami League regime.
Fifteen other accused, including Tarique Rahman, were tried in absentia.
The 49 people were tried and convicted in both cases, which made the same accused.聽 After the Awami League, activities of which are now banned, assumed power in January 2009, the investigation was expanded further, leading to two charge sheets implicating 30 new accused and retaining 22 previous accused, who were named in the original charge sheet submitted in 2007. The further investigation was ordered after 61 witnesses had testified during the trial.
A total of four accused Mufti Abdul Hannan, his two associates and Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islam- leader Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mujahid were executed in separate cases during the pendency of the trials.聽
Lawyer SM Shajahan urged the apex court to clear Tarique, a non-applicant accused, who has been staying in London since 2008, of the charges, upholding the High Court鈥檚 verdict and referring to a High Court decision in favour of Tarique, who could not file an appeal for political reasons.聽聽
The government later challenged the HC ruling, and the Appellate Division heard arguments over five days since July 17, 2025.
The High Court had ruled that the trial was flawed and cited multiple legal inconsistencies. It said that, besides 22 accused named in the first charge sheet, the supplementary charge sheet filed in 2011 added 30 new names without proper justification.
The new accused included Tarique Rahman, Lutfozzaman Babar, BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia鈥檚 political secretary Harris Chowdhury, executed Jamaat leader Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mujahid, and former NSI chief Rezzakul Haider Chowdhury.
Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami Bangladesh鈥檚 top leader Mufti Abdul Hannan, and his two associates, former BNP minister Abdus Salam Pintu and his brother Moulana Tajuddin were among the accused in the first charge filed in 2007.
Deputy attorney general Abdullah Al Mahmud Masud urged the court to reinstate the convictions, arguing the High Court erred in acquitting all 49.
