No bar to continue trial of 4 BTV officials’ murder case: HC

The High Court has cleared the way for continuing a 47-year-old murder case after it withdrew a stay order on the case.

The HC bench of Justice Mohammad Abu Zafar Siddiqui and Justice Md Mahmud Hasan Talukder passed the order on Wednesday (31 August).

Deputy Attorney General Samira Tarannum Rabeya (Miti), Assistant Attorney General Md Shamim Khan and Assistant Attorney General Kazi Samsun Nahar represented the state during the hearing.

The officials killed at Rampura in 1975 were Monirul Alam, one of the TV station's key founders, editor of Fortnightly Bichitra, the then BTV deputy director general, administrative officer AB Siddique, chief accountant Akmal Khan and photographer Firoz Kaiyum Chowdhury.

According to documents of the case, army personnel were deployed at radio and TV stations in Dhaka following the murders of Bangabandhu and his family members on 15 August 1975.

Class three and four employees of the state-owned TV station were agitating at the time to realise their demands but the authorities were not accepting them.

According to the charge sheet, the accused had plans to confine BTV Director General Jamil Chowdhury and General Manager Mustafa Monwar but they did not turn up at the office that day.

As the four did not return home, their wives filed abduction cases with Gulshan Police Station on 19 November 1975.

Later, on 17 February 1976 three skeletons were found in Hatirjheel when it dried up.