DHAKA: A Dhaka court is set to deliver verdict in Jahangirnagar University (JU) student Zubair Ahmed murder case on Sunday.

Anisur Rahman, Assistant Deputy Commissioner of Police (prosecution) told banglanews that the accused will be produced before the court amid haral, blockade. 

Earlier on February 4, Judge Nizamul Haq of Speedy Trial Tribunal-4 of Dhaka deferred the pronouncement of verdict till Sunday as police failed to produce the accused before the court due to security reason.

Court’s special PP Taslima Yasmin Dipa said the tribunal will pronounce the verdict in this morning.

Verdict in this killing case is likely to be delivered some three years after Zubair, a 37th batch student at Department of English of JU, was brutally killed by rivals on January 8, 2012.

Some 13 students are accused in the killing case. The deceased and the accused are all leaders and members of the university unit of Bangladesh Chhatra League, students’ wing of Awami League.

The accused are Ashiqul Islam Ashique, Rashedul Islam Razu, Khan M Roich alias Sohan, Zahid Hassan, Istiaque Mehbub Arup, Mahbub Akram, Nazmus Shakib Tapu, Mazahrul Islam, Kamruzzaman Sohag, M Nazmul Hussian Plaban, Shafiul Alam Setu, Abhinandan Kundu Abhi, and M Mahmudul Hasan Masud.

Of the accused, seven are behind bar and six are fugitive now. All of the detained were out of the bar on bail. On January 28, the court finished its trial proceedings in the case and sent them to jail denying bail.

Of the accused, Ashiqul Islam Ashique, Khan M Roich alias Sohan, Istiaque Mehbub Arup, and Mahbub Akram fled the court dock on 23 February 2014. Later, the court fixed the trial proceedings in their absentia.

On January 8, 2012, BCL rivals beat up Zubair with iron rods on his way back from attending his honors final year examinations, leaving him critically injured.

Seriously injured Zubair was rushed to Enam Medical College and Hospital in Savar, on outskirt of the city, and shifted to the city’s United Hospital at night as the condition deteriorated. Following the day, Zubair succumbed to his inquiries there.

The then-JU deputy registrar, Hamidur Rahman, filed the murder case with Ashulia Thana on the day Zubair died.

Ashulia Thana Sub-Inspector Meer Shahin Shah Parvez, investigation officer (IO) of the case, submitted the charge sheet to Dhaka’s Chief Judicial Magistrate Court on April 3, 2012.

Of the accused, Najmus Sakib Topu and Mahabub Akram gave confessional statements before the courts.

On September 8, 2013, the court framed charges against all the 13 accused after recording deposition of 27 out of 37 witnesses those were listed in the charge sheet.

BDST: 1107 HRS, FEB 08, 2015