A Dhaka magistrate court on Wednesday acquitted eight people, including Bangladesh Nationalist Party secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, in a case filed on charges of vandalism and setting fire to a Dhaka South City Corporation garbage truck in 2012.
Besides, the government suspended the jail term of Zubaida Rahman, wife of BNP acting chairman Tarique Rahman, for one year, on the condition that she would file an appeal upon her surrender to court in a case field by the Anti-Corruption Commission in 2007.
Dhaka additional chief metropolitan magistrate Ziadur Rahman acquitted the accused of the charges due to lack of evidence and the absence of witnesses for a long time. 聽
Fakhrul鈥檚 lawyer, Syed Zainul Abedin Mejbah, said that the case had been pending for a long time due to the absence of witnesses.
So, the court acquitted the accused in the case, the lawyer added.
The other six accused are Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami鈥檚 Dhaka city south secretary Muhammad Shafiqul Islam Masud, former Jubo Dal president Saiful Alam Nirob, BNP information and research secretary Azizul Bari Helal, and BNP leaders Moazzem Hossain Babu, Kazi Rezaul Haque, and Khandaker Enamul Haque.
According to a case statement, a DSCC garbage truck was vandalised, and an explosion took place on December 9, 2012, when 200-250 BNP leaders and activists, led by Fakhrul and Rizvi, reportedly blocked Minto Road at Paltan in Dhaka during a protest.
The driver of the garbage truck, Md Aynal, filed the case with the Paltan police station over the incident.
On October 23, 2017, Detective Branch submitted a charge sheet to the court.
Later, on September 3, the court framed charges against the accused in the violence case.
Meanwhile, the government on Wednesday suspended the jail term of Zubaida Rahman, on the condition that she would file an appeal in the case upon surrender.
A circular issued by the home ministry said that the decision was taken following an application from Zubaida Rahman seeking the suspension of her sentence, with approval from the Law Ministry.
The case, filed on September 26, 2007, with the Kafrul police station, also accused Zubaida鈥檚 mother, Syeda Iqbal Mand Banu.
Earlier, in August last year, Dhaka Metropolitan Senior Special Judge Court sentenced Zubaida Rahman to three years in prison, and her husband Tarique Rahman to nine years, in a case filed by the ACC 聽in 2007 during the army-controlled caretaker government.
The court jailed Tarique for six years on charge of amassing illegal wealth and three years for hiding the information of the wealth, and Zubaida for three years on charge of assisting Tariuqe in committing the offences.
The court also fined Tarique Tk 3 crore and Zubaida Tk 35 lakh.
On June 26, 2022, the High Court declared Tarique and Zubaida 鈥榝ugitives鈥� and rejected their writ petitions challenging the filing of the case. The HC also withdrew the stay order in the case.
On September 26, 2007, the ACC filed the case against Tarique, Zubaida, and her mother, Iqbal-Mand Banu, on charges of amassing illegal wealth of Tk 4.81 crore and concealing information about the asset.
The police submitted a charge sheet against the three on March 31, 2009. Zubaida鈥檚 mother was, however, dropped from the case.
