The Appellate Division of Supreme Court (SC) has adjourned till August 13 the hearing on a state appeal against the High Court verdict that acquitted BNP acting chairman Tarique Rahman, former state minister Lutfozzaman Babar, and 47 others convicts in two cases filed over the grenade attack on August 21, 2004.
A six-member Appellate Division bench, led by Chief Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed, began the hearing with Additional Attorney Generals Mohammad Abdul Jabber Bhuiyan, Mohammad Arshadur Rouf and Aneek Rushd Haque, and Deputy Attorney General Abdullah Al Mahmud moved the plea for the state.
Senior Advocate SM Shahjahan and Advocate Mohammad Shishir Manir argued for the defence.
On June 1, 2025, the apex court granted a leave to appeal petition filed against the High Court judgment that had acquitted all the people convicted by the lower court in the two cases.
On December 1, 2024, the High Court acquitted all 49 convicts scrapping the lower court verdicts that had convicted and sentenced them in the cases.
The court came up with the verdict after holding a hearing on the death references, criminal and jail appeals filed in the two cases.
Defence counsel Advocate Shishir Manir on that day told newsmen, “The court observed that the lower court trial was illegal as it was not held in accordance with the law. Besides, no eyewitnesses were examined in the cases and all the witnesses, who were examined, heard about the incident,”
Besides, the lower court concerned delivered the judgement based on a confessional statement of Mufti Abdul Hannan, but his confessional statement has no evidential value as it was taken by force, he added.
At least 24 people were killed and many others injured in the grenade attack on an Awami League rally on Bangabandhu Avenue here on August 21, 2004. Following the incident, a murder and an explosives substances act cases were filed.