Ahsanullah Master killing: Justice delayed as SC yet to begin hearing case appeals

Justice is yet to be delivered in the Ahsanullah Master murder case 16 years after the crime as the appeals are still pending with the Supreme Court.

Ahsanullah Master, the then Awami League lawmaker, was barbarically killed on this day in 2004.

The Appellate Division of the SC is yet to begin the hearing of the appeals against the High Court verdict of the case.  

Although hearing was set to begin in January last year, the defense counsels took deferment at different times, Additional Attorney General Momtaz Uddin Fakir told The Daily Star today.

"We [state counsels] are ready for placing arguments before the Appellate Division when the apex court starts proceedings of the case," he said.

All relevant documents of the case have been submitted before the apex court, he said, adding that the SC may start hearing of the appeals after it reopens after the general holiday.              

Advocate Khandker Mahbub Hossain, principal defence counsel of the case, could not be reached for comments in this regard despite repeated attempts over phone.  

An Appellate Division bench headed by Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain was set to start hearing of the appeals on January 7 last year as per the cause list on that day.       

But the bench deferred the hearing till March 4 last year, as all relevant documents required were not produced before the bench.

Later, the appeals were included in the cause list of the SC at different times, but they were adjourned.   

Assailants killed Ahsanullah Master and a student named Omar Faruq Ratan, and wounded 17 others as they fired at a rally of Swechchhasebak League, a pro-AL body, at Noagaon near the Ahsanullah's house in Tongi on May 7, 2004.

The next day, Ahsanullah's brother Motiur Rahman filed the case against 19 people, including Nurul Islam Sarkar, a Jubo Dal leader.

On April 16, 2005, a Dhaka court sentenced 22 people to death and gave life terms to six others over the killing.

On June 15, 2016, the HC upheld death of six persons including Nurul Islam Sarkar, commuted capital punishment of seven others to life imprisonment, upheld life term of two and acquitted 11 others of the charges against them.

The HC also disposed of the appeals of two other accused as they died during the trial.

Currently, five petitions challenging the HC verdict are pending with the apex court, including those by Ahsanullah's brother Motiur and the government seeking death to all convicts, and those by the convicts seeking acquittal from all conviction, sources at the Attorney General's Office said.   

Of the 15 convicts, 10 are now in jail and five on the run.