Judge embarrassed to hear Tareque Sayeed’s plea

A judge of a High Court bench today felt embarrassed to hear a petition of sacked Rab official Lt Col (retd) Tareque Sayeed Mohammad seeking scrapping of the proceedings of his trial in the Narayanganj seven-murder case.

The bench of Justice Md Emdadul Huq and Justice FRM Nazmul Ahasan also ordered its officials to send the petition to the chief justice for an appropriate decision.

Justice Emdadul Huq said one of them felt embarrassed to hear the petition.

The senior judge of the bench however did not disclose the name of the judge who felt embarrassed and the reasons behind the feeling.    

Petitioner’s lawyer Golam Kibria told The Daily Star that after receiving the petition, Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha might assign another HC bench for its hearing.

On April 27, 2014, Narayanganj panel mayor Nazrul Islam and his four associates, and senior lawyer Chandan Sarker and his driver were abducted and killed allegedly by some Rab-11 personnel. Their bodies were later found floating in the Shitalakkhya river.

Tareque Sayeed’s lawyer Kibria said Selina Islam, wife of victim Nazrul Islam, later filed a case with Fatullah Police Station on April 28, 2014 in connection with the incident of abduction and killing, and 11 days later, Bijoy Kumar Paul, a relative of Chandan Sarker, filed another case with the same police station in connection with the same incident.

An investigation officer has investigated both the cases and submitted the same charge sheets to the trial court in the cases, which is not allowed by the law, as an accused cannot be tried and punished separately for a single offence, the defence lawyer said citing from the quashment petition filed by Tareque Sayeed on February 24.