Former Chief Justice ABM Khairul Haque, widely blamed for tampering with the verdict that abolished the election-time caretaker-government system, was held Thursday and sent to jail in a murder case.
In an instant reaction, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party that had led a prolonged movement for polls under such revived nonpartisan government, hailed the action under the current interim government.
Also, a section of pro-BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami-affiliated lawyers demanded his fair trial and "exemplary punishment".
A Dhaka court ordered him in jail in connection with the murder case filed with Jatrabari police station in the city over the deaths during last year's July uprising.
Judge of the Metropolitan Magistrate Court in Dhaka passed the order after hearing a petition filed by Khaled Hasan, Inspector (operations) of Jatrabari police station.
He was shown arrested in the Abdul Quaiyum murder case filed with the Jatrabari police on July 6 in 2025, according to the petition submitted in the court.
"Three more cases, filed with Fatullah Police Station in Narayanganj and Shahbagh Police Station in Dhaka, against him are also under investigation," reads the police petition.
On August 27 last year, Supreme Court lawyer Muzahedul Islam Shahin filed the case against former Chief Justice and former Law Commission Chairman Khairul Haque at Shahbagh Police Station over allegations of corruption and forgery of verdicts.
Earlier on August 25, another case was filed against Khairul Haque at Fatulla Police Station in Narayanganj. The case was filed by former President of the Narayanganj District Bar Association, and also General Secretary of Fatulla Thana BNP, Abdul Bari Bhuiyan in connection with the verdict declaring the caretaker government system unconstitutional 13 years ago.
In that case, Khairul Haque was accused of tampering with the verdict to annul the 13th amendment to the Constitution and sedition.
Speaking to the reporters on the Supreme Court premises, Advocate Zainul Abedin, President of the Bangladesh Jatiyatabadi Ainjibi Forum (BJAF), a platform of pro-BNP lawyers, alleged that Justice Khairul Haque played a central role in undermining democratic institutions through his "controversial verdict" that abolished the caretaker government system. He demanded trial of Khairul Haque before "the court of public".
BNP leader and Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) President AM Mahbub Uddin Khokon accused Khairul Haque of signing the full text of the Appellate Division's verdict scrapping the caretaker government system 16 months after his retirement, calling it "a fraud upon the judiciary and democracy".
On the other hand, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has demanded exemplary punishment of the former Chief Justice as he destroyed the judiciary just to serve his political ideology.
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