Chattogram ex-JMB commander gets 20-year jail term
Ershad Hossain, the former commander of Chattogram Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), has been sentenced to 20 years imprisonment in an explosive case.
Chattogram's fourth Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge Shariful Alam Bhuiyan passed the verdict on Tuesday.
Three other accused in the case - Bulbul Ahmed Fuad, Md Sujan and Mahbubur Rahman Khokon - were acquitted as there was no concrete evidence against them, state lawyer Noman Chowdhury said.
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"Sections 4 and 6 of the Explosive Act offer punishment only to those from whom explosives are recovered. As nothing was found from the three accused, they were acquitted," said the state lawyer.
On 23 March 2015, police arrested Ershad with explosives, bomb making ingredients and books, raiding a rented house adjacent to the NR Steel Mill on Mir Auliar Mazar road in Chattogram.
In this incident, Sub-Inspector Shahidur Rahman filed a case at Akbar Shah police station.
Bulbul and three other militants were detained in an anti-militancy operation in areas under Karnaphuli police station late in 2015. Later they were arrested in the explosive case filed with Akbar Shah police station.
On 8 April 2016, the investigating officer of the case, SI Mohammad Solaiman of Akbar Shah police station, submitted a supplementary charge sheet to the court under the Explosives and Anti-Terrorism Act against the four accused.
On 24 November 2020, the court framed charges against the four accused. The testimony in the case ended on 27 February this year.
