The High Court today acquitted all the accused of August 21 grenade attack cases, including BNP acting chairperson Tarique Rahman and former state minister Lutfozzaman Babar.
The court also scrapped the lower court verdict, in which total 49 persons were convicted.
The HC bench of Justice AKM Asaduzzaman and Justice Syed Enayet Hossain delivered the verdict after hearing the death references and appeals related to the two cases filed over grenade attack on Awami League rally in 2004.
The High Court observed that the trial court verdict in the cases is illegal as it was delivered through illegal way.
The trial court had delivered the judgement on the basis of a confessional statement made by Mufti Abdul Hannan, an accused of the cases, who was executed in connection with another case.
The confessional statement of Mufti Hannan has no evidential value as it was taken on force and was not examined properly by the magistrate concerned, the HC bench said in the verdict.
The accused of the cases, who could not file appeal with the HC challenging the trial court verdict on them, will get benefit of the HC judgement of acquittal, the lawyers said.
On November 21, the bench kept the death references (trial court documents for confirmation of death sentences), and the appeals, filed by the convicted accused in the cases, as curia advisari vult (meaning the verdict will be delivered any day), after it concluded hearing on those matters.
During the hearing on the death references and appeals, the defence lawyers for the convicted accused prayed to the HC to scrap the trial court verdict and to acquit all the accused, saying that there is no specific allegation against them.
Meanwhile, appearing for the state, Deputy Attorney Generals Md Jashim Sarker and Md Russell Ahammad prayed to the HC bench to uphold the lower court verdicts in the cases, saying that the allegations brought against the convicted accused have been proved beyond reasonable doubt.
Two cases -- one for murder and another under the Explosives Act -- filed following a grenade attack on an Awami League rally at Bangabandhu Avenue in Dhaka that claimed 24 lives and left about 300 injured.
Then opposition leader Sheikh Hasina, who later ran the country for 15 years as prime minister and was forced to resign and flee on August 5 this year following a mass uprising, narrowly escaped the attack on August 21, 2004.
A Dhaka court on October 10, 2018, sentenced 19 people, including former BNP state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar to death in the two cases filed in connection with the grenade attacks.
Nineteen others including BNP acting chairman Tarique Rahman, now in London, were given life imprisonment and 11were handed different terms in prison.