An unprecedented incident took place on Sunday inside a courtroom between pro-Awami League lawyers and state prosecutors during the bail hearing of former chief justice ABM Khairul Haque in a murder case.
The heated exchange of hot words erupted between pro-Awami League and state lawyers in the courtroom of the High Court bench of Justice Zakir Hossain and Justice KM Rasheduzzaman Raja.
Amid the chaos, the court adjourned the hearing and set August 17 as the next date for proceedings.
The bail application was filed in connection with the murder case lodged over a killing during last year's July Uprising.
Khairul, who also served as the former Law Commission chairman, was arrested on July 24 from his Dhanmondi residence by Dhaka Metropolitan Detective Police and sent to jail later that night.
He was shown arrested in a separate case on July 29, filed with Fatullah Police Station in Narayanganj, accusing him of delivering illegal and fabricated verdicts by abolishing the caretaker government system.
On Wednesday, a Dhaka court granted a seven-day remand in this case.
The murder case stems from the death of Jubo Dal activist Abdul Kaiyum Ahad, who was shot dead on July 18 last year, during the July Uprising in the Kajla area of Jatrabari.
The victim's father, Alauddin, filed the case on 6 July with Jatrabari Police Station, naming 467 people, including deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina.
During the bail petition hearing on Sunday, senior lawyers MK Rahman, Kamrul Haque Siddiqui, ZI Khan Panna, Mohsin Rashid, Motahar Hossain Saju, Syed Mamun Mahbub and other pro-Awami League lawyers appeared before the HC bench on behalf of Khairul Haque where state lawyers were already present in the courtroom.
When the hearing began, Deputy Attorney General Russell Ahmed, representing the state, told the court that the Attorney General sought one week time and sought the court to keep the matter pending for a week.
Then, lawyer Mohsin Rashid, representing Khairul Haque, told the Deputy Attorney General, "You cannot give such instructions to the court."
With this, a commotion and uproar started between Khairul Haque's lawyers and the state's lawyers.
The state's lawyers told Khairul Haque's lawyers, where were you when former Chief Justice SK Sinha was deported? Today, you have come to seek bail for a scoundrel like Khairul Haque who destroyed democracy.
Later, scuffle and counter scuffle broke out between the lawyers inside the courtroom and the judges of the HC bench adjourned the hearing till next Sunday.
