HC acquits Tarique, Babar, and all other accused of 21 August attack case

Tarique Rahman, acting chairman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), Lutfozzaman Babar, former state minister for home affairs, and all other accused of the 21 August grenade attack case have been acquitted. 

The High Court bench of Justice AKM Asaduzzaman and Justice Syed Enayet Hossain handed down the verdict today, Sunday. 

Earlier, the same bench completed the hearing on the death reference and appeal of the accused on 21 November. On that day, the court kept the two cases awaiting verdict (CAV). In continuation of that, the two cases were listed in the agenda for verdict on Sunday.

The grenade attack on Dhaka's Bangabandhu Avenue took place on 21 August 2004.

In the cases filed (for murder and explosives), a verdict was delivered by Dhaka’s Speedy Trial Tribunal-1 on 10 October 2018.

The verdict sentenced 19 individuals, including former state minister for home affairs Lutfozzaman Babar and former deputy education minister Abdus Salam Pintu, to death.

Additionally, 19 others, including BNP’s acting chairman Tarique Rahman, were sentenced to life imprisonment, and 11 others received various terms of imprisonment and fines.

Following the verdict, the case files, along with the judgment, were transferred to the High Court in 2018, where it was registered as a death reference case.

Lawyers have said that in any criminal case, when a convict is sentenced to death by a trial court, the sentence must be approved by the High Court to be enforced. This is known as a death reference case. In addition, the convicts have the opportunity to file jail appeals, regular appeals, and other applications.

Generally, hearings for the death reference and these appeals are held together. The hearing for the 21st August grenade attack case, including the death reference and appeals, started in the High Court on 31 October.

Following the grenade attack on 21 August 2004, two cases—one for murder and another for explosives—were filed at the Motijheel police station.

It was alleged that the then BNP-Jamaat coalition government made various efforts to divert the investigation into the incident. In 2007, the caretaker government began a re-investigation into the two cases (murder and explosives).

In 2008, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) charged 22 people, stating that the attack was carried out by militants to kill Sheikh Hasina and make the Awami League leaderless.

Later, under the Awami League government, further investigation was conducted, and an supplementary charge sheet was filed, naming 30 individuals, including Tarique Rahman.