Charge-framing against 9 in BTV officials murder case Aug 14

Judge Mohammad Sirajul Islam yesterday rejected the discharge petitions of the accused and fixed the date.

Four BTV officials -- programme director, M Monirul Alam, administrative officer, A F M Siddiq, accounts officer, Akmal Khan and cameraman, Chowdhury Firoz Quayyum -- were shot dead on November 7, 1975 by some military personnel allegedly in collaboration with some BTV officials and employees.

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The killers led by Lt (retd) Altaf Hossain dragged them behind the BTV Bhaban and shot them on the night of November 7. Later, their bodies were dumped in a jheel nearby.

Following the incident, family members of the victims filed separate murder cases with Gulshan Police Station on November 19, 1975 without naming any accused.

Bodies of the victims were recovered from the jheel in February, 1976.

The Detective Branch (DB) of police took up the cases for investigation and submitted final report in January, 1978.

As per directive from the higher authorities, the case filed by the wife of victim Akmal Khan was reviewed on March 25, 1997 and investigated by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

The investigation officer (IO) of the case submitted a chargesheet to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's (CMM's) Court, Dhaka on August 18, 1998 against nine people.

The chargesheeted accused are Lt (Retd) Altaf Hossain, assistant director (suspended) of BTV Abul Kashem Bagoja, assistant director (suspended) of BTV Abdul Awal Sarker, producer (suspended) Lutfur Rahman Talukder, programme controller (retd) Syed Ainul Kabir, duty officer (terminated) Aynuzzaman, first field engineer of Bangladesh Army Mohammad Shahjahan Siraj, armymen K A M Zakaria Haider and Abul Kashem.