ICT-1 shows Dipu Moni, Babu, Rupa arrested in case over Shapla Chattar crackdown
The International Crimes Tribunal (ICT)-1 today showed former minister Dipu Moni, former Ekattor TV Editor-in-Chief Mozammel Babu and the channel’s Principal Correspondent Farzana Rupa arrested in a case filed over the then government’s crackdown on a Hefazat-e-Islam Bangladesh rally at Shapla Chattar in the city on May 5, 2013. The tribunal passed the order after holding a hearing on a petition filed by the prosecution in this connection. The court later sent them back to jail.
The trio, who were arrested in 2024 and have remained in jail since then, were brought to the tribunal premises around 9:40 am and later produced before the court. The first tribunal directed the authorities concerned to produce them before the court today after hearing a prosecution plea seeking production warrants against the three in the case on May 7. “Former minister Dipu Moni, journalists Mozammel Babu and Farzana Rupa deliberately attempted to divert the Shapla Chattar killing incident in a planned manner.
Therefore, production warrants were sought against them in the case as their interrogation is necessary,” Chief Prosecutor Aminul Islam told. Earlier on May 5, the chief prosecutor said the tribunal’s investigation agency had identified 58 people killed across the country during the crackdown on the Hefazat-e-Islam Bangladesh rally at Shapla Chattar. “Of the 58 identified victims, 32 were killed in Dhaka on May 5, 2013. Another 20 died in Narayanganj, five in Chattogram and one in Cumilla the following day. All the deceased have now been identified,” he said at a briefing at his office here.
He further said the identities of the accused in the case could not be disclosed at this stage in the interest of a proper investigation, adding that around 90 per cent of the probe work had already been completed. The accused in the case include ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir, Shamsul Haque Tuku, Ziaul Ahsan, former inspectors general of police AKM Shahidul Haque, Hasan Mahmud Khandaker and Benazir Ahmed, former deputy inspector general of police Molla Nazrul Islam and Imran H Sarkar.
