A BDR jawan stomped in combat gear during the February 25-26 mutiny at the Pilkhana BDR headquarters. The man, wearing a blue headband, kept his fingers close to the trigger of his rifle.The scene was captured in a video footage and photographs that were screened before the BDR special court-5 at the Darbar Hall of the BDR headquarters yesterday.
The person in the footage and photographs had been identified as Sepoy Al Mamun Jewel, who outright rejected the identification.
"The person in the photograph and the video is not me," Mamun claimed before the three-member court headed by BDR Director General Maj Gen Md Rafiqul Islam.
Ahah. The old "wudn't me" defense. That oughta work.
Sepoy Fakir Ali Mir, another accused in the BDR mutiny case, also claimed that the person in a photograph taken during the mutiny was not him.
The BDR director general asked him whether he has a twin brother in the BDR as the person in the photograph looked like Fakir. He said "no".
"It might have been my other twin, though."
Like the two, several other accused claimed that the people in the video footages and photographs were not them. But a few accused, who were not in combat gear during the mutiny, admitted that they were in the photographs displayed before the special court.
The court took deposition of witnesses against 667 jawans of 24 Rifles Battalion charged with mutiny.
Dhaka BDR Sector Commander Col Aziz Ahmed said the accused jawans were lying. Their denial would not have any impact as other jawans from their units had already identified them, he said.
Aziz said 77 accused claimed that they hid in toilets at the Darbar Hall on the first day of the mutiny and did not see each other. In order to find the truth behind their claim, a video footage was prepared for the court putting 77 people in the toilets at the same time.
Sorta like trying to flush a Koran ...
The place proved too small for them as they struggled to even stand on their feet.
Plaintiff Subedar Matiur Rahman brought specific charges against 33 BDR jawans at the court on the first day of the deposition. He presented as evidence call lists of the mobile phones of the accused, footages and photographs captured during the mutiny that claimed the lives of 74 people including 57 army officers.
The video footages of the recovery of bodies of the slain BDR officers were also screened at the court.
Prosecutor Lt Col Shamsur Rahman requested the court to allow the plaintiff and number one witness to give deposition. All the accused were produced before the court.
Twenty-nine of the 667 accused had confessed before the court to their involvement in the mutiny but the prime accused, Subedar Major Gofran Mallick, denied the charges against him.