CID again gets time for probing Ershad

A Dhaka court yesterday granted the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) three more months to complete further probe into the murder of the then Major General Abul Manzur in 1981.

Judge SM Saiful Islam of the First Additional District and Sessions Judge's Court asked the CID to complete the probe by August 13.

The then chief of army staff HM Ershad, also now Jatiya Party chief and a special envoy to the prime minister, has been made main accused in the charge sheet of the case. 

The court passed the order after CID Special Superintendent Abdul Kahar Akond, also the investigation officer, submitted a petition seeking more time for further investigation. Akond sought extension of time in the case for the seventh time.

In his petition, Akond said he visited the USA in June last year and recorded a partly statement of Manzur's daughter Lubna Manzur. Lubna also told the IO that she would give more information about her father's killing after meeting her counsel.

Advocate Sheikh Muhammad Serajul Islam represented Ershad who was earlier exempted from personal appearance before it while one of two other accused--Maj (retd) Kazi Emdadul Haque--was present at the court yesterday. Another accused Lt Col (retd) Mostafa Kamaluddin Bhuiyan could not attend the court for his illness, his lawyer told the court.  

On January 8, the court asked the CID to complete the investigation by yesterday.

Manzur, who was the commander of sector-8 during the Liberation War, was killed at the Chittagong Cantonment on June 1, 1981, two days after the assassination of the then president Ziaur Rahman.

His elder brother Abul Mansur Ahmed filed the murder case with Panchlaish Police Station on February 28, 1995, 14 years after the killing.