War Crimes Trial against SQ Chy
ICT-1 continues recording cross-examination
The International Crimes Tribunal-1 yesterday continued recording the cross-examination of the fifth prosecution witness in the case against Salauddin Quader Chowdhury.
The tribunal also recorded the cross-examination of the last and 28th prosecution witness Helal Uddin in another case against Jamaat leader Delawar Hossain Sayedee for his alleged involvement in crimes against humanity committed during the Liberation War.The three-member tribunal headed by Justice Md Nizamul Huq adjourned the proceedings of the two cases till today.
Sayedee's counsel Mizanul Islam questioned Helal Uddin, also the investigation officer of the case, mostly over some footage and photographs when the tribunal began its proceedings at 10:35am.
The footage and photographs mostly contain the places of occurrences of crimes allegedly committed by Sayedee, houses of the victims and witnesses situated in Pirojpur, home district of the Jamaat-e-Islami nayeb-e-ameer.
Sayedee, who faces 20 charges of crimes against humanity, was not produced before the court as per the tribunal's earlier direction.
After the lunch break, Praphulla Ranjan Sinha, the fifth prosecution witness in the case against Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury faced cross-examination by the defence.
Praphulla, son of Nutan Chandra Sinha who was the founder of herbal medicine factory Kundeshwari Oushadhalaya, testified before the tribunal on June 20 and faced the defence's cross-examination on June 21.
In his statement, Praphulla said Salauddin accompanied by Pakistani army, took a lot of gold and money from his father minutes before killing him on April 13, 1971. Praphulla said he had heard the matter from Brojohori Karmakar, an eyewitness of the incident.
During the 90-minute cross-examination yesterday, Ahsanul Huq, one of Salauddin's counsels, asked Praphulla some 60 questions on different issues.
As Ahsanul asked him whether bottles had been supplied to Chittagong University from Kundeshwari during the non-cooperation movement in 1971 to make Molotov cocktail, Praphulla replied positively.
"Is it true that Farhat Quader Chowdhury, wife of Salauddin, had filed a Tk 500 crore defamation case against you [Praphulla] with the Fourth Joint District Judges' Court of Dhaka [in 2011]?" asked Ahsanul.
Praphulla replied positively saying Mahfuzur Rahman, chairman of private television channel ATN Bangla, was also made respondent of the case.
When Ahsanul asked him about a case filed in connection with the killing of Nutan Chandra in 1972, Praphulla said the charge sheet of the case was submitted probably in 1973, but he was not aware of the case's headway.
Replying to another question, Praphulla said Abdullah Al Noman, incumbent vice-chairman of BNP, asked him to leave the country on April 11, 1971 and accompanied him till Ramgarh when he left the country.
BNP leader Salahuddin, who is facing 23 specific charges of crimes against humanity, was produced before the tribunal yesterday.
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