Explosive case trial resumes after 12 years
A Dhaka court on Sunday granted bail to at least 200 former Bangladesh Rifles soldiers in an explosive case filed over the BDR mutiny. All these soldiers have already been acquitted by both the trial court and the High Court in a murder case related to the rebellion staged at its headquarters Pilkhana in 2009.
Solders taking part in the 30-hour-long mutiny in February 25鈥�26, 2009, killed 74 people, among them 57 army officers, who were deputed to the then Bangladesh Rifles.
While the murder case remains pending before the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, many of the acquitted soldiers were held in custody as they were also accused in a separate explosive case tied to the BDR carnage.
Dhaka Metropolitan Special Tribunal Judge Md Ibrahim Mia granted bail after hearing petitions filed on behalf of 426 detained soldiers.
The court recorded the deposition of retired major Syed Md Yusuf as a prosecution witness as it resumed the explosive case trial which was stalled for 12 years.
The next hearing is scheduled for February 10.
The court has so far recorded testimonies of 284 out of 1,264 witnesses under the Explosive Substances Act.
The trial was stalled since the disposal of the murder case in 2013.
The bail orders were issued on Sunday in the makeshift courtroom at Dhaka Central Jail in Keraniganj amid ongoing protests from the families of the detained soldiers, demanding their release.
Deputy inspector general of prisons for Dhaka division Jahangir Kabir told 抖阴精品 that 756 former BDR soldiers were held in custody in four jails in connection with the two cases filed over the rebellion and of them 200 were granted bail on Sunday.
On the day, 106 accused were produced in the court. Of them, 50 were already acquitted in the BDR mutiny murder case in both trial court and High Court, six were on death row and the rest 50 were serving various sentences in the murder case.
Chief public prosecutor Borhan Uddin said that the court for granting bail gave priority to those soldiers who got acquittal in the murder case but were detained in the explosive case.
He added that the court was likely to issue release orders after two days as it received a list of soldiers meeting the criteria.
He said that the BDR members鈥� lawyers failed to mention the exact number of the accused who applied for bail and also the exact information on the number of personnel acquitted from both the lower court and High Court.
The trial court鈥檚 decision came as a first step towards addressing the longstanding legal limbo affecting hundreds of soldiers detained under overlapping charges.
Defence lawyer Aminul Islam estimated that 250 soldiers might qualify under the bail order, while Borhan put the number at over 200.
On November 5, 2013, the trial court sentenced 568 soldiers in the murder case. Of them, 152 were awarded death penalty, 162 were handed life imprisonment, and 256 were sentenced to varying jail terms. Of the total 850 accused in the case, 278, mostly former BDR personnel, were acquitted.
In a two-day judgment delivered on November 26鈥�27, 2017, the High Court upheld the death sentences of 139 soldiers and handed life imprisonment to 185 others.
Additionally, it upheld varying jail terms for 200 convicts, while acquitting 45 accused of all charges.
Lawyer Aminul Islam said that the trial court had initially acquitted 277 soldiers. But after the then Awami League government appealed against the acquittal of 69 individuals, the High Court handed life imprisonment to 20 of them.
In December 2020, the then Awami League government filed 20 appeals in the Appellate Division, challenging the High Court verdict. One of the appeals challenged the High Court鈥檚 acquittal of 16 soldiers.
The lower court sentenced 12 of the 16 soldiers to life imprisonment and handed death penalty to the rest four.
The appeals now remain pending in the Appellate Division.
Aminul Islam noted that the recent 426 bail applications included soldiers who had completed serving the sentences handed down by the High Court, but remained in custody in the explosive case.
He argued that many of these soldiers were already acquitted in the murder case and were likely to receive similar verdict in the explosive case.
He further contended that the soldiers were in custody for 16 years which constituted a strong basis for granting bail.
Chief prosecutor Borhan Uddin opposed the bail petitions, arguing that there remained a possibility of convictions in the explosive case.
He maintained that granting bail could undermine the ongoing legal process.