HC clears way for Jan 30 judgment

The High Court (HC) on Monday rejected a plea to cross examine the Investigation Officer (IO) of 10-truck arms case clearing the way for a trial court to pronounce judgment in the sensational Chittagong arms haul case filed with a police station in the port city 10 years ago. The petition also sought to change the court hearing the case. Justice Naima Haider and Justice Zafar Ahmed rejected the petition after a hearing, clearing the way for Chittagong’s Senior Special Tribunal-1 to deliver the verdict on January 30. National Security Intelligence (NSI)’s former field officer Akbar Hossain, along with Abdur Rahim and Liakat Hossain, had moved the plea on January 12 to question the IO of the case Ahadur Rahman all over again. Police had seized 10 trucks of weapons and ammunition from the state-owned Chittagong Urea Fertiliser Ltd (CUFL) jetty in Chittagong while they were being offloaded from trawlers in the early hours of April 2, 2004. Around 1,500 wooden boxes containing submachine guns, AK-47 assault rifles, submachine carbines, Chinese pistols, rocket shells and launchers, hand grenades and bullets were seized. Two separate cases were filed with Karnaphuli police station in the port city over the seizure of the huge cache of arms. Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Motiur Rahman Nizami, former BNP State Minister for Home Lutfuzzaman Babar and two senior NSI officials are accused in these cases. Leader of the Indian separatist outfit United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) Paresh Barua is also accused in the two cases filed under the Arms Act and Special Powers Act for smuggling of arms. But he is absconding. Senior Special Tribunal-1 Judge SM Mujibur Rahman will pronounce the verdict on Thursday, according to bdnews24.com.