Gazipur court acquits Tarique in 2015 sabotage case

Interim BNP president Tarique Rahman was acquitted in another case filed at a police station in Gazipur during the previous Awami League regime.

Judge Rehena Akhter of the Gazipur Additional Sessions Court-1 passed the order today (November 28), acquitting the BNP leader in a sabotage case filed at Joydebpur police station in 2015.
The court also acquitted 60 Bangladeshi BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami activists in the case, confirmed the defendants’ lawyer, Dr. Shahiduzzaman, for The Business Standard.

With this, Tarique was acquitted in three cases filed in the district during the AL regime.

According to court sources, on February 21, 2015, the then Sub-Inspector (SI) of Joydebpur Police Station, Syed Abul Hashem, filed the case, on charges of sabotage and petrol bombing of a bus.
Tarique Rahman was accused in the charge sheet, although he was not named in the statement.
The chargesheet said that during a nationwide blockade, 50-60 activists of the BNP-Jamaat alliance hurled a petrol bomb at a passenger bus in front of Kuliachar Garments in Signboard area, setting the vehicle on fire.

Advocate Shahiduzzaman said Tarique was not named in the statement of the case. His name was included in the charge sheet for the purpose of political harassment on the suggestions of Awami League leaders AKM Mozammel Haque, Zahid Ahsan Russell and Azmat Ullah Khan.

Noting that eight witnesses had testified in the case, he said, after a long hearing of 10 years, the judge announced the verdict on Thursday as the defendants had no involvement in the incident.