21 August grenade attack: Acquittal of Tarique Rahman, others upheld

The Supreme Court’s Appellate Division has upheld the High Court verdict acquitting Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Acting Chairman Tarique Rahman and others in the 21 August grenade attack cases.

A six-member bench of the Appellate Division, headed by Chief Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed, delivered the ruling on Thursday, dismissing the state’s appeal against the High Court judgement.

The verdict, however, was issued with certain observations, including modifications and withdrawals of parts of the High Court order.

The hearing on the state’s appeal concluded on 21 August. The court had reserved the judgement for 4 September. Following this, the Appellate Division passed the order today,

The judges entered the courtroom at 10:05 am today. Chief Justice Ahmed began announcing the verdict, which was completed by 10:18 am.

On 21 August 2004, a deadly grenade attack targeted an Awami League rally on Bangabandhu Avenue in Dhaka, killing 24 people and injuring more than 100 party leaders and activists.

In October 2018, the Dhaka Speedy Trial Tribunal-1 delivered its judgement in the two cases (murder and explosives). The court sentenced 19 people, including former state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar and former deputy education minister Abdus Salam Pintu, to death. Tarique Rahman and 18 others were sentenced to life imprisonment, while 11 others received different terms of imprisonment and fines.

Following the judgement, the case records reached the High Court later in 2018 as part of the mandatory death reference procedure.

Under criminal law, a High Court review is required to confirm any death sentence issued by a lower court. Alongside this, the convicts also filed jail appeals and regular appeals, which were heard simultaneously.

The hearing on death reference, jail appeals and regular appeals in the 21 August grenade attack case started on 31 October last year.

On 1 December that year, the High Court declared the supplementary charge sheet on which the trial had been conducted to be unlawful, effectively invalidating the tribunal’s judgement.

The court also rejected the death reference, allowed the convicts’ appeals, and acquitted all accused, including Tarique Rahman and Babar.

Today, the Appellate Division unanimously upheld that acquittal.