A Chittagong court took into cognizance the supplementary charge-sheets, submitted in two cases filed in connection with the sensational seizure of 10 truck-loads of arms and ammunition, on Wednesday.
The acting metropolitan sessions judge, Golam Sarwar, took the supplementary charge-sheets into cognizance after a hearing and issued arrest warrants against two absconding accused out of a total of 11 implicated recently.
The judge also ordered attachment of the properties of the absconding accused, ULFA leader Paresh Barua and former additional secretary to the industries ministry Nurul Amin, and fixed August 1 for producing all the accused before the court.
According to the court sources, inception of the trial process in the cases had become uncertain since the post of metropolitan sessions judge remained vacant and the acting metropolitan sessions judge lacks the power of cognizance.
Sources also said that the law ministry on Tuesday sent a fax message, empowering the acting metropolitan sessions judge with the power of cognizance until appointment of metropolitan sessions judge, thus removing the obstacle to the beginning of the trial process.
Public prosecutor Kamal Uddin Ahmad said that the court had taken the charge-sheets into cognizance after scrutinizing them and hearing both the sides, and added that empowering the acting judge with the power of cognizance would expedite the trial process.
The police seized a total of 4,930 different types of sophisticated firearms, 27,020 grenades, 840 rocket-launchers, 300 rockets, 2,000 grenade-launching tubes, 6,392 magazines and 11,40,520 bullets while they were being loaded on to 10 trucks from two motorised boats at the jetty of the Chittagong Urea Fertiliser Ltd on 2 April, 2004.
Ahadur Rahman, the then officer-in-charge of the Karnaphuli thana, filed two cases in connection with the biggest ever arms haul on 3 April, 2004. The cases were transferred to the Criminal Investigation Department 22 days after being filed.
The investigation officer, Mohammed Muniruzzaman, implicated 11 more people, including former minister Matiur Rahman Nizami and former state minister Lutfuzzaman Babar, in the supplementary charge-sheets submitted on Sunday.
With the persons recently implicated, the number of accused stands at 50 in a case filed under the Arms Act, and 52 in another case filed for smuggling.
Source : New Age
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