Judge Mohammad Sirajul Islam of the First Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court passed the judgment in presence of two of the accused, Golam Mostafa and Mahbubul Haq. The rest including Anne and Habibunnabi Sohel, have been absconding since the incident.

The court earlier declared Anne, Sohel and others fugitives and issued arrest warrants against them. But they did not appear before the court.

In his order, Judge Sirajul Islam observed that 21 prosecution witnesses in the case including former Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) leaders Ishaq Ali Khan Panna and Bahadur Bepari did not appear to testify for the last three years. Only one police witness testified but he did not mention any name of the accused in his statement. So the accused were acquitted of the charges for lack of adequate evidence.

The case that was filed with Ramna Police Station, said Anne, Sohel and their Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) associates with guns and explosives attacked BCL rivals at Surya Sen Hall of Dhaka University at about 11:30am on April 23, 1998.The incident left Partha Protim Acharya dead on the spot.

Shahiduddin Chowdhury Anne MP of BNP and Habibunnabi Sohel were the top leaders of BNP's student wing JCD then.

Later, three separate cases -- one for killing Partha, one for obstruction of police officers in execution of duty and the other for explosion, were lodged.

The investigation officer pressed charges against Anne, Sohel and 30 others on October 15,1999. The court framed charges against them on October 13, 2002.