Maj Gen Manzoor murder: CID submits supplementary charge sheet

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of police have submitted a supplementary charge sheet in the Maj Gen Abul Manzoor murder case.

CID Superintendent of Police (SP) Md Kubuddin, investigation officer (IO) of the case, submitted the charge sheet to the First Additional District and Sessions Judge's Court of Dhaka on Wednesday, reports the Daily Star citing a court official.

The names of former Jatiya Party chairman late HM Ershad and Maj Gen (retd) Adbul Latif have been dropped from the new charge sheet as they have died.

No new information was included in the supplementary charge sheet. 

The IO included three people who were accused in the previous charge sheet as well. They are: Lt Col (retd) Mostafa Kamal Uddin Bhuiyan, Lt Col (retd) Shamsur Rahman Shams, and Major (retd) Kazi Emdadul Haque.

On February 27, 2014, the trial court ordered further investigation into the murder after Special Public Prosecutor Asaduzzaman Khan Rochi submitted a petition during closing arguments.

Maj Gen Manzoor was killed in 1981 after the assassination of BNP founder and then president Ziaur Rahman.

Ziaur Rahman was killed on May 30, 1981 during a military coup. At that time, Maj Gen Abul Manzoor was the General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the 24th infantry battalion of Chittagong. The police detained Manzoor after he went into hiding following Zia's death.

On February 28, 1995, Manzoor’s brother lodged a case with Panchlaish police station in Chittagong, accusing Major Emdadul of killing Manzoor. 

On July 15 that year, Abdul Kahar Akand, the assistant police superintendent at the time, pressed charges against the six with the court.

Then army chief Lt Gen Abu Saleh Md Nasim and a metropolitan judge, Abul Hashem, gave testimonies before the court on October 28, 2010.

The case has been heard by 26 judges since it was filed officially on August 28, 1995. The judges were either promoted or transferred to other districts.