Aug 21 grenade attack cases: HC to deliver verdict any day

The High Court is set to deliver its verdict any day on the death references and appeals of the August 21 grenade attack cases.
Today, the HC bench of Justice AKM Asaduzzaman and Justice Syed Enayet Hossain kept the death references (trial court documents for confirmation of death sentences), and the appeals, filed by the convicted accused in the cases, as curia advisari vult (meaning the verdict will be delivered any day), after it concluded hearing on those matters, Deputy Attorney General Md Jashim Sarker told The Daily Star.
The cases were filed following a grenade attack on an Awami League rally at Bangabandhu Avenue in Dhaka that claimed 24 lives and left about 300 injured.
Then opposition leader Sheikh Hasina, who later ran the country for 15 years as prime minister and was forced to resign and flee on August 5 this year following a mass uprising, narrowly escaped the attack on August 21, 2004.
A Dhaka court on October 10, 2018, sentenced 19 people, including former BNP state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar to death in the two cases filed in connection with the grenade attacks.
Nineteen others including BNP acting chairman Tarique Rahman, now in London, were given life imprisonment and 11 people were handed different terms in prison.
Eighteen of the convicted accused are absconding and 31 are in jail.
During the hearing on the death references and appeals, the defence lawyers for the convicted accused prayed to the HC to scrap the trial court verdict and to acquit all the accused, saying that there is no specific allegation against them.
Meanwhile, appearing for the state, Deputy Attorney Generals Md Jashim Sarker and Md Russell Ahammad prayed to the HC bench to uphold the lower court verdicts in the cases, saying that the allegations brought against the convicted accused have been proved beyond reasonable doubt.
Advocate SM Shahjahan, the principal defence lawyer, told the HC that the lower court verdict was defective and faulty as it was delivered without adequate proven evidence and documents.
The charge sheets submitted by the police in the cases were not acceptable as submission of a charge sheet for the second time in any case is contradictory to the law, he argued.
Advocate Mohammad Shishir Manir, another defence lawyer, argued before the HC saying that there is no specific allegation against the accused.
Investigation has been conducted in the cases from a political motive in order to implicate BNP leader Tarique Rahman, Lutfozzaman Babar and some others in the cases, he said.
Lawyer Shishir Manir also argued that the convicted accused have been forced to make confessional statements, making them invalid.
On October 31 this year, the HC bench led by Justice AKM Asaduzzaman started a fresh hearing on the death references and appeals of the August 21 grenade attack cases.
Earlier, another HC bench of Justice Shahidul Karim and Justice Md Mostafizur Rahman has held hearings on death references and appeals of the same cases for around 100 working days since December 5, 2022.