Aminur Rahman

A Chittagong court yesterday framed charges against 38 people including BNP leader Aminur Rahman Chowdhury and eight new accused for their involvement in an arson attack that left 11 members of a minority family dead in Banshkhali on November 18, 2003.
Criminals set ablaze the house of Tejendra Shil in Banshkhali on November 18 night. But the motive behind the attack was not clear.
Tejendra's son Dr Bimal Shil, the lone survivor of the arson attack, filed a case the next day against 30-35 unidentified people on charges of arson attack, looting and murder. There had been allegations that the then BNP-led government influenced the probe into the case.
Shambhu Prashad Biswas, counsel for the plaintiff, said the findings of the probe indicate that it was not an incident of robbery but a thought-out plot to wipe out a minority family.
Of the accused, Aminur Rahman is the president of Kalipur union BNP and chairman of Kalipur union. He is cousin of BNP lawmaker Jafrul Islam Chowdhury, also former state minister for environment and forest.
The court yesterday fixed October 17 for taking deposition of witnesses, said Public Prosecutor Abul Hashem.
On January 9 this year, Hla Ching Pru of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), investigation officer in the case, submitted a supplementary charge sheet against 39 people including eight new accused.
The court later dropped charges against accused Nurul Islam, said PP Hashem.
There was an allegation that Aminur had been involved in the incident. But the then investigation officer ASP Clarence Gomez did not include Aminur in the charge sheet he submitted against 31 people on December 14, 2005.
The plaintiff later filed a petition challenging the charge sheet and appealed for further investigation.
A Chittagong court on March 20, 2007 ordered further probe into the case and the then ASP Shafiqur Rahman was appointed the new IO. He submitted a charge sheet against the same 31 accused on November 27, 2007.
When the plaintiff again filed a petition challenging the charge sheet, the case was transferred to the CID and ASP Khurshid Jamil of the CID was made the new IO. Four more CID officials conducted probe into the case and submitted charge sheets thrice without mentioning the name of Aminur.
Hla Pru, who had been appointed the eighth IO, submitted a charge sheet against 39 people including Aminur on January 9. Aminur surrendered to the court on February 2 and obtained bail in the case.
The defence lawyers yesterday requested the court to drop the names of Aminur and another accused Sabur Ahmad from the charge sheet. But the court turned it down.
The other accused include Abdul Karim, Javed Hossain, Ahammad Mia, Mahbubur Rahman, Md Hasan, Sarwar Uddin, Md Shahjahan, Abu Taiyab, Akbar Ali, Shahjahan, Aminul Hoque, Ahammad Hossain, Matlub, Shafiul Azam, Jashim, Nazrul Islam, Aminul Hoque, Anu Mia, Selim, Bakkar, Rubel, Abu, Oji Ahmad, Aziz, Fazal Kader, Asgar, Jashim, Enam, Ledu, Kamrul Islam, Amir Hossain, Md Yunus, Abul Kalam, Nurunnabi, Rashid Ahmad and Abdul Nabi.