HC resumes delivering verdict in BDR carnage case

Staff Correspondent: The High Court (HC) has started reading out the incomplete part of its verdict on the death reference and appeals in BDR carnage case.

A three-member special bench led by Justice Md Shawkat Hossain started pronouncing the verdict in the case at 10:52am on Monday.

Two other members of the bench are Justice Md Abu Zafor Siddique and Justice Nazrul Islam Talukder.

Justice Nazrul Islam Talukdar is reading out the remaining part of the verdict containing 10,000 pages today.

The court yesterday adjourned the announcement of its verdict on the death reference and appeals in BDR carnage case till today.

Justice Md Abu Zafor Siddique yesterday read out from the verdict to begin around 10:55am and said in his observation that the mutiny posed a serious challenge to the 48-day-old government and a grave threat to democracy and the rule of law.

Earlier on April 13, the HC bench kept the case waiting for verdict after hearing arguments on the death reference and appeals in the case for 370 days.

The death reference and the appeals were filed with the HC months after a Dhaka court announced the verdict on November 5, 2013, nearly five years after the bloody mutiny.

The trial court sentenced 150 BDR soldiers and two civilians to death and jailed 160 others for life for their roles and involvement in the massacre.

It also handed down rigorous imprisonment to 256 people, mostly BDR soldiers. The court acquitted the remaining 277 accused, but the government later appealed against acquittal of 69 of them.

Seventy-four people, including 57 army officials, were killed during the BDR (Bangladesh Rifles) mutiny on February 25-26 in 2009 at the Pilkhana headquarters of the paramilitary force, later renamed Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB).

risingbd/Dhaka/Nov 27, 2017/Mehadi/AI