“We have clearly stated in our verdict that it was a criminal conspiracy and pre-planned plotting in which Bangabandhu and most of his family members were murdered,” he said while addressing the blood donation programme organised by Supreme Court marking the National Mourning Day.
The CJ said the goal of the conspirators was to eliminate the entire family of Bangabandhu, but problems with the probe led to the big plotters of the barbaric killings escaping justice.
He said the killings were also part of a planned conspiracy against the whole country, which eventually became evident in the indemnity ordinance issued within one and a half months of the killings.
“Many tend to term that incident as a mutiny by some deranged army officials,” Sinha said with a strong observation that in reality it was a cowardly crime and a pre-planned conspiracy against the state.
He said a trial into the cowardly crime and conspiracy against the country was stopped by promulgating the indemnity ordinance.
Recalling the heartbreaking August 15 killings, the CJ said Bangabandhu might have had enemies, but the other members of his family were also killed as the murder plot was to eliminate the entire family of the Father of the Nation.
The CJ said he had come back from Singapore midway through his cancer treatment to take part in the trial proceedings of the Bangabandhu murder case.
Justice Abdul Wahhab Miah, seniormost judge of the Supreme Court, said there is no scope of confusion that Bangabandhu is the Father of the Nation.
“It was because of him that this country was liberated. It was because of him that I became the senior judge of the Supreme Court,” Justice Wahhab Miah said.
He said if the country had not been liberated, becoming Chief Justice or Supreme Court judge would have been beyond our imagination.
Justice Khasruzzaman of high court division and a number of staff and officials donated blood at the programme organised with assistance from transfusion medicine department of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU).
This is the first time after his verdict on the 16th constitutional amendment was flayed by ministers and top leaders of the ruling Awami League that Justice Sinha has spoken publicly on Mujib.
Experts said Justice Sinha never said anything in his judgment that could lower the image of Mujib or parliament in public eyes.
Home Minister Asaduzzaman Kamal yesterday said the government had found absconding killers of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his family members.
The minister made the remark in reply to a query by journalists while placing wreaths at the portrait of Bangabandhu at Dhanmondi Road- 32 in Dhaka yesterday, marking the National Mourning Day.
“We have almost identified the specific location of several fugitive killers of Bangabandhu.
Diplomatic efforts are on to bring these killers back to the country,” he said.
The government will execute the verdicts against all these killers, including Noor Chowdhury, after bringing them back to the country, Khan added.
“We hope that we will be able to bring back the killers country and implement the judgment of the court,” he said, adding that the government is also looking for the wealth belonging to these killers.
Meanwhile, diplomatic efforts to bring back fugitive convicted killers are yet to yield any concrete result though the government sees
‘certain progress’ to that end.
The government is still continuing ‘communication’ with the countries where the six fugitive killers are believed to have been hiding, officials said.
The six fugitive killers are former Lt Col Khandaker Abdur Rashid, SHBM Noor Chowdhury, Shariful Haque Dalim, Rashed Chowdhury, former captain Abdul Majed and Risaldar Moslehuddin.
Of them, the government knows the whereabouts of SHBM Noor Chowdhury, Rashed Chowdhury and Risaldar Moslehuddin while it is not yet sure about three other fugitives — Khandaker Abdur Rashid, Shariful Haque Dalim and Abdul Mazed. A cabal of army officers assassinated Bangabandhu along with most of his family members on August 15, 1975.
None of the six killers have been brought back yet despite efforts from the government.
The government has started a process to confiscate the assets of the killers of Bangabandhu while it has appointed lawyers in the US and Canada to extradite the fugitive convicts, officials said.
Law Minister Anisul Huq said the government has found two fugitive killers — Noor Chowdhury and Rashed Chowdhury.
Noor Chowdhury is now in Canada while Rashed Chowdhury is in the USA. Dalim and Moslemuddin are believed to have been hiding in Spain and Germany respectively.