HC delays verdict on Zubair murder case

The High Court will not deliver on Tuesday its verdict on the death references and appeals by one of the death-row convicts in the sensational murder case of Jahangirnagar University (JU) student Zubair Ahmed. On January 9, after concluding the hearing, the bench of Justice Bhabani Prasad Singha and Justice Mustafa Zaman Islam had fixed January 23 to pronounce its judgment. But the verdict got delayed as Justice Mustafa is currently on leave, said Deputy Attorney General Jahid Sarwar Kajal. He, however, could not say when the justice will resume office. The court also did not fix a new date to deliver the verdict. In February 2015, Dhaka’s Fourth Speedy Trial Tribunal had sentenced five people to death and six others to life in prison — all of them activists of the university unit of Bangladesh Chhatra League, ruling Awami League’s student affiliate. Zubair, 23, a fourth-year student of the English Department at JU, was viciously beaten with metal rods and hacked with sharp weapons by several Chhatra League activists on January 8, 2012 on the campus. He succumbed to his injuries the next morning at the United Hospital at Dhaka’s Gulshan. The murder of Zubair, who was also a Chhatra League activist, had been the result of an internal feud. Afterwards, the then JU deputy registrar (Security), Hamidur Rahman, had filed the murder case at Ashulia police station. Following Zubair’s murder, a student-teacher movement had even led to the resignation of the then vice-chancellor Prof Sharif Enamul Kabir. On April 8 that year, police pressed charges against 13 students. The case was transferred to the Speedy Trial Tribunal after the suspects were indicted in September 2013. Among them, Mahabub Akram and Nazmus Sakib Topu had confessed in court to their involvement in the murder. On February 8, 2015, the tribunal sentenced five of the 13 accused to death and six to life imprisonment. Two others were acquitted. Later, death row convict Rashedul Islam Raju had filed an appeal with the High Court. The others are still absconding. One of the six convicts who received life imprisonment is also a fugitive while the rest challenged the trial court’s verdict. Parts of this article were first published on banglatribune.com