Five BNP leaders, four in absentia, sentenced to 10 years’ jail

RANGPUR, Nov 20 (UNB): A Rangpur court on Monday sentenced five BNP men including district and city unit member secretaries Anisur and Mahfuz to 10 years in jail in a subversion case filed around 10 years back.

Rangpur Additional District and Sessions Judge Court-1 Judge Krishna Kanta Roy also fined the convicts Tk 10, 000 each, in default they will have to serve six more months' jail, said the court's public prosecutor Abdus Sattar.

The convicts are district unit BNP Member Secretary Anisur Rahman Laku, city unit Member Secretary Advocate Mahfuz-Un-Nabi, city unit Jubo Dal Senior Joint Convenor Jahir Alam Nayon, district unit Jubo Dal President Tarek Hasan Sohag and party activist Arif Hossain.

Of them, Mahfuz was present on the dock during the delivery of the judgment while the rest are now absconding.

Moreover, district unit BNP and Jubo Dal's General Secretaries Raich Ahmed and Shamsul Haque Jhantu were relieved of charges in the case as they have already died.

According to the case statement, police arrested the accused when they were about to prepare for torching a bus in the field of Rangpur Polytechnic Institute on May 19, 2013, a day before beginning a shutdown called by Jubo and Swechasebak Dal.

Police also recovered 56 crude bombs and other equipment from the arrestees at that time.

A case was filed accusing the BNP men with Kotwali police station in this connection.

Meanwhile, a Dhaka court on Monday sentenced seven former Jubo Dal men including its President Saiful Islam Nirob to two and a half years in jail in a subversion case filed with Dhaka's Tejgaon police station around 10 years back.

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Mohammad Sheikh Sadi also fined the convicts Tk 2, 000 each; in default they will have to serve seven more days' jail.

The other convicts are Sajedul Islam Sumon alias Baha Sumon, Gandu Shahin, Belal Hossain, Zakir Hossain, Anwaruzzaman Anwar alias Anwar Commissioner and Abu Bakar Siddique. They were leaders and activists at several levels of the Jubo Dal, a youth wing of the opposition BNP.