Online Desk: The High Court on Tuesday rejected the petition that challenged the legality of charge framing against former superintendent of police Babul Akhtar in his wife the Mahmuda Khanam Mitu murder case. Now, there is no bar for the trial court to continue the case.

An HC bench of Justice SM Quddus passed the order rejecting the plea filed earlier by Babul Akhtar’s lawyer Muhammad Shishir Monir. Deputy Attorney General Sujit Chatarjee Bappi was at the hearing on behalf of the state. Chittagong’s Third Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge Md Jasim Uddin on April 9 started the trial of seven accused including former superintendent of police Babul Akhtar taking testimony of the witnesses.

On June 5, 2016, unidentified assailants gunned down Babul’s wife Mitu at the port city’s GEC intersection while she was going to drop her son Mahir Akter, 7, at the pickup spot for his school bus. Soon after the crime, Babul filed a murder case at Panchlaish Police Station against three unidentified men. The case was transferred to the Police Bureau Investigation (PBI) in 2019 after Mitu’s father, himself a retired police officer, filed a complaint against the CMP’s mishandling of the case.

On May 12, 2021, the PBI submitted its final report and arrested Babul Akter in another case filed by Mitu’s father and since then he has been in prison. Babul Akhter also filed a no-confidence petition against the PBI report on October 14, 2021. On November 3 last year, a Chittagong Court rejected the final report of PBI in the murder case and ordered it to conduct further investigation.