No trial in 8 years
BCL man Faruk murder
RU Correspondent
The Rajshahi University (RU) unit of the Bangladesh Chattra League (BCL) will observe the 8th anniversary of the murder of Faruk Hossain, a BCL activist of Rajshahi University (RU), on February 8. However, the trial of 110 Jamaat-Shibir activists charged with the murder is yet to begin. The complainant of the murder case now lives in Sweden. He is now out of touch with the case. Faruks family members too have no information regarding the court proceedings.
The prosecution itself is unaware whether the trial has begun. The police say it will take some more time to begin the trial. The case has remained dormant at the Rajshahi district court. A few BCL leaders, wishing anonymity, allege to The Independent that the police have taken bribes from the involved Jamaat-Shibir men to delay the investigation.
Complainant Mazedul Islam Opu, then general secretary of RUs BCL unit, says that the police do not take the case seriously and are responsible for the delay in beginning the trial.
It is duty of the police, the government and the university authorities to speed up the process, he adds. Opu, who is also the joint secretary of the Sweden unit of the Awami League, claims that Jamat-Shibir men offered him a huge sum of money to withdraw the case, but he did not respond to the lure of money. He also says that he is unhappy that the trial has not begun yet.
Echoing BCL leaders, Aslam Sarker, a lawyer of the Rajshahi district judges court and also the law affairs secretary of the Rajshahi Metropolitan unit AL, says it is possible that many people have taken bribes from the accused. He asks for Prime Minister Sheikh Hasinas intervention to start the trial. Several legal experts in the Rajshahi judges court, too, say that accusing a large number of people destroys the merit of a case and weakens it. They say they suspect a motive behind charging so many people in the case as it would delay the whole process.
Advocate Abdus Salam, prosecution lawyer in the case, says he does not know whether the trial in the case has even begun. Once the trial commences, the defence may file time petitions on various grounds to further delay the proceedings, he adds. Asma Akter, Faruks sister, who works temporarily as a lower assistant officer in the RU administrative office, says she had no information about the trial. She is the only earning member of the family and has to look after her ailing father.
Zillur Rahman, investigating officer of the case, says: At a rally in Rajshahi city on February 6, 2010, the three top Jamaat leaders provoked Shibir activists to attack BCL men, triggering the clash that left Faruk dead. Zillur, then OC of Rajpara police station, where the case was filed, submitted the charge-sheet to the Rajshahi chief metropolitan magistrates court against 110 Jamaat-Shibir men on July 30, 2012.
Faruk was killed on February 8, 2010, in a clash between Shibir and BCL activists over establishing supremacy on the campus and control seats at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Hall. His body was dumped into a manhole. The next day, BCL leader Mazedul Islam Opu filed a murder case, accusing 35 named and 29 unnamed Jamaat-Shibir men.
