Fakhrul, Abbas acquitted in explosives case

A Dhaka court has acquitted BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, Standing Committee member Mirza Abbas, and 20 others in a case filed under the Explosive Substances Act with the Paltan Model Police Station in 2023.
Judge Sabbir Faiz of the Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge’s Court on Sunday passed the order after accepting the final police report, confirmed defence lawyer Zakir Hossain.
The other prominent BNP leaders in the case are -- Standing Committee members Gayeshwar Chandra Roy and Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury, Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, and others.
According to the case documents, the BNP called a grand rally on 28 October 2023, where the leaders made anti-government and provocative speeches. BNP leaders and activists, along with its affiliated organisations, began throwing bricks and stones at the police and set fires at various spots on the road.
A case was filed on 3 November that year with the Paltan Police Station, and police submitted the final report to the court on 2 February this year.
Meanwhile, Judge Muhammad Kamrul Hasan Khan of Dhaka Special Judge-3 ordered BNP Standing Committee member Gayeshwar Chandra Roy to be acquitted from a graft case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) 16 years ago.
Earlier, on 5 January 2009, the ACC filed the case with Ramna Police Station over graft charges. The charge sheet was filed on 4 February 2010. A total of 29 witnesses testified in the case.
According to the case documents, Gayeshwar owns a six-storey building at Rayer Bazar and another in his ancestral land in Keraniganj, where the Public Works Department (PWD) found that the construction costs were Tk2,536,505 higher than the declared cost.
Additionally, electronic goods worth Tk58,600 were found at Gayeshwar’s residence, which is allegedly beyond his known source of income.
It was also alleged that in 2004–2005, Gayeshwar received Tk2.61 crore from two contracting firms --Abdul Monem Ltd and Reza Construction Ltd -- using his political influence.
Tk2.86 crore was the total value of the assets reportedly obtained through the building of the house, the acquisition of technological devices, and illegal payments.
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Edited by 
Md. Akhlak Hossain