Pilkhana carnage case: 8.34 lakh pages of appeal documents for 9 accused
An application was sent to the chief justice seeking a waiver of the requirement to provide documents in the appeals of other accused
The nine accused whose death sentences in the Pilkhana BDR mutiny murder case were upheld in the High Court have appealed for acquittal to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court. The appeal documents contain more than 8.34 lakh pages.
An application was sent to the chief justice seeking a waiver of the requirement to provide these documents in the appeals of other accused. If allowed, the other accused will be able to appeal by 13 January this year, said Aminul Islam, a lawyer representing the accused, on Wednesday.
He said nine, including Kamal Mollah, Moniruzzaman, Yusuf Ali, Abu Saeed Alam Saidur Rahman, Anisuzzaman, Fazlul Karim, Bazlur Rashid, who were sentenced to death have filed their applications in the relevant branch of the Appellate Division on Tuesday.
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"The total number of pages in these appeals, including the judgments of the lower court and the High Court, and the relevant documents, stands at 8,34,345. An application has been sent to the Chief Justice seeking permission to not include these documents in the others appeals," said Aminul Islam.
Meanwhile, the state has also appealed against those who were recently acquitted in the High Court and those whose sentences have been commuted.
On 5 November 2013, the lower court sentenced 152 BDR members to death, 160 to life imprisonment, 256 to various terms of imprisonment and acquitted 278 others. The High Court announced the verdict on the death reference and appeal against that verdict on 26 and 27 November 2016.
The 29,059-page text of the verdict was published on 8 January, 2020.
After the verdict was published, the erstwhile Attorney General Mahbubey Alam announced that the death sentence of 139 people had been upheld. For the remaining 12, the death sentences of eight were commuted to life imprisonment and the other four were acquitted.
In the verdict, 185 people were given life imprisonment, one of whom died while in prison.
Two accused were sentenced to 13 years of rigorous imprisonment, and 157 accused were sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment, two of whom have died.
13 accused received seven years of imprisonment, 14 received three years of imprisonment, while two received a year of imprisonment.
A total of 552 people have been convicted and 283 were acquitted. 14 of the accused have died.
74 people, including 57 army officers, were killed in the carnage beginning on 25 February, 2009 at the Pilkhana headquarters in Dhaka.
