[Bangla Daily Star] Huji leader Mufti Abdul Hannan yesterday challenged at the High Court the legality of a magistrate's action that recorded his confessional statement involving Tarique Rahman in connection with August 21 grenade attack.The HC bench of Justice Abdul Awal and Justice Md Faruque adjourned the hearing of the petition of Hannan that challenged the legality of the magistrate's action until today.
Hannan also filed a petition with the HC on February 17 for expunging his statement recorded by AHM Habibur Rahman Bhuiyan, the then additional chief metropolitan magistrate, in 2011.
On February 3, Habibur told a Dhaka court that Hannan in his statement mentioned names of some intelligence and political bigwigs, including Khaleda Zia's son Tarique Rahman, as masterminds of the August 21 grenade assault.
Judge Shahed Nuruddin of the Speedy Trial Tribunal-1 of Dhaka recorded Habibur's statement on that day.
Hannan was in the dock while Habibur, now an additional metropolitan session judge in Dhaka, was giving his testimony on recording the confessional statement the same day.
Hannan's lawyer barrister Fakhrul Islam told The Daily Star yesterday that magistrate Habibur Rahman recorded the confessional statement of Hannan in a murder case filed under the penal code in connection with the grenade attack.
Habibur, however, placed the recorded statement before the Dhaka court on February 3 in connection with a case filed under Explosive Substance Act 1908, which was illegal, he said.
Although the two cases were filed in connection with the same incident, the magistrate cannot place the statement of one case of any accused in another case before a court, he added.