Published on 08:46 PM, August 20, 2015

The curious case of Joj Mia (video)

Petty criminal Joj Mia, was falsely implicated in the August 21 grenade attack cases. Officials of the Criminal Investigation Department arrested Joj Mia from his home on June 10, 2005. He was later found innocent and released from jail after around three years.   

"I gave the confessional statement before a magistrate [in 2005] because the [then] CID officials threatened me with [death in] crossfire," he told the Speedy Trial Tribunal-1 in 2014.

Joj was released from jail after an investigation in 2007 by the then CID ASP Fazlul Kabir found no evidence of his involvement in the attack.

During a further probe in 2011, he spoke about the false confession he had been made to give and the reason behind it to the then investigation officer Abdul Kahar Akand of CID.

The grisly grenade attack on the AL rally left 24 people, including Ivy Rahman, wife of late President Zillur Rahman, dead and more than 300 others injured. AL chief and the then opposition leader Sheikh Hasina narrowly survived the attack.