Rony was drunk while shooting

Bakhtiar Alam Rony trying to hide his face behind a towel. Photo courtesy: Prothom Alo

A counsel for Bakhtiar Alam Rony, son of ruling Awami League lawmaker Pinu Khan, yesterday told a Dhaka court that his client was drunk when he shot dead two people in the capital on April 14.

His client had no intention to kill any people, claimed advocate Kazi Nazibullah Hiru, adding that Rony committed the offence when he was drunk. So, he should not be placed on remand.

Moreover, his client is sick, and he should be given proper treatment in jail custody.

 The lawyer said this while moving a petition seeking bail and cancellation of the seven-day fresh remand prayer by detectives.     

But the prosecution opposed it, saying Rony committed the offence with his full knowledge because he knew that if he shot a man, he would be killed. So, the accused should be remanded.

Rejecting defence pleas, Metropolitan Magistrate Mahbubur Rahman put Rony on a four-day fresh remand for gleaning more information about the double murder in the city's New Eskaton.

The jail authorities yesterday produced Rony before the court.

In the remand prayer, Dipak Kumar Das, a sub-inspector of Detective Branch (DB) of police and also the investigating officer of the case, said he had earlier quizzed Rony intensively for four days and got vital clues about the killings.

On June 13, Rony was sent to jail on expiry of his remand.

But Rony, the prime accused in the double murder, was trying to conceal information vital to the investigation, Dipak said in the petition submitted on June 21.

His driver and three friends had given statements before magistrates where they said Rony had killed the two people with his licenced pistol.

So, he needed to be remanded again to find more information about the killings, the petition said.

The three friends of Rony and his driver in their statements before metropolitan magistrates said Bakhtiar lowered the window of his sport-utility vehicle (SUV) after it got stuck in a traffic jam in New Eskaton and fired four to five shots around 1:30am, hitting rickshaw-puller Abdul Hakim and CNG-run auto-rickshaw driver Yakub Ali. They died in a hospital later.