HC verdict on BDR carnage case any day

The High Court will deliver a verdict any day on the death reference and appeal in BDR carnage case in terms of number of accused and convicts.

A three-member special bench of the HC on Thursday kept the death reference an appeal as Curia Advisari Vult, a Latin legal term meaning verdict could be delivered anytime, after concluding hearing an argument on them for 370 days.

Seventy-four people, including 57 army officials, were massacred during the BDR mutiny on February 25-26 in 2009 at the Pilkhana headquarters of the paramilitary force, later renamed Border Guard Bangladesh.

After the mutiny, police filed the two cases with Lalbagh police station in the capital and submitted charge sheets against 850 accused on July 12, 2010.

On November 5, 2013, A Dhaka court awarded death penalty to 150 soldiers of the erstwhile BDR and two civilians, and sentenced 161 others to life in prison in the murder case.

The trial court also awarded rigorous imprisonment, ranging from three to 10 years, to 256 people, mostly BDR soldiers, and acquitted 277 others.