Hadi murder: No-confidence petition filed against DB chargesheet

Rejecting the charge sheet submitted by the Detective Branch (DB) of police, the plaintiff in the murder case of Inqilab Mancha spokesperson Sharif Osman bin Hadi has filed a no-confidence petition.

Inqilab Mancha Member Secretary Abdullah Al Jaber submitted the petition before the court of Dhaka Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Jashita Islam today (15 January), confirmed the plaintiff's counsel Mustafizur Rahman Mukul.

Earlier, on 6 January, DB Inspector Faisal Ahmed, the investigation officer of the case, submitted a chargesheet against 17 accused. On 12 January, the plaintiff appeared before the court and sought time to review the chargesheet, which the court granted until today. The court had fixed the date to hear arguments on the acceptability of the chargesheet.

According to the chargesheet, the main accused Faisal Karim Masud alias Daud, his associate Alamgir Hossain, Dhaka North Jubo League organising secretary and former ward councillor Taijul Islam Chowdhury Bappi, Philip Snal Philips, Mukti Akter and Faisal's sister Jasmine Akter are absconding.

The remaining 11 accused are currently in jail. They are Faisal Karim Masud's father Md Humayun Kabir, mother Mosa Hasi Begum, wife Saheda Parveen Samia, girlfriend Maria Akter Lima, brother-in-law Wahid Ahmed Sipu, rent-a-car businessman Mufti Md Nuruzzaman Nomani alias Ujjal, close associate Md Kabir, Sibion Diu, Sanjoy Chisim, Md Aminul Islam alias Raju, and Md Faisal, who was arrested with weapons in Narsingdi.

The investigation officer has sought arrest warrants against the six absconding accused.

During the hearing on the no-confidence petition, lawyer Mustafizur Rahman Mukul argued that the investigation officer had submitted the charge sheet merely as a formality, without conducting a proper and meaningful investigation.

He said the charge sheet failed to explain the link between the main planners of the murder and the shooters who carried it out. "Hadi was not an ordinary person. There must have been a major plan behind his killing. That is why he was shot dead in public, to send a message so that no one dares to speak out against fascism and domination as Hadi did," he told the court.

After the hearing, the court kept its order pending.

According to the case statement, Sharif Osman Hadi formed the political-cultural platform Inqilab Moncho in the post-uprising period and served as its spokesperson. On 12 December at around 2:20pm, assailants on a motorcycle shot him on Box Culvert Road under Paltan Model Police Station, leaving him critically injured with bullet wounds to his head and below his right ear.

He was initially taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital and later to Evercare Hospital. As his condition deteriorated, he was flown to Singapore by air ambulance on 15 December for advanced treatment. He died there on 18 December while undergoing treatment.

Following the incident, Abdullah Al Jaber filed an attempted murder case with Paltan Police Station on 14 December, which was later converted into a murder case after Hadi's death.