DHAKA, Dec 24, 2024 (BSS) - BNP vice-chairman and former deputy minister Abdus Salam Pintu was released from Kashimpur Central Jail today after 17 years since getting arrested and subsequently convicted in August 21 grenade attack case.

The High Court on December 1 acquitted all the people convicted by the lower court in murder and explosives substances act cases filed over the grenade attack in the capital's Bangabandhu Avenue on August 21, 2004.

Abdus Salam Pintu, along with 18 others were convicted and sentenced to death by the lower court concerned in the case. He came out of Kashimpur Central Jail Part-2 around 11:04am today.

Confirming the matter, superintendant of Kashimpur Central Jail Part-2 Al Mamun said as there are no more pending cases against Pintu, he was released after necessary documents reached the prisons authorities.

A High Court division bench of Justice AKM Asaduzzaman and Justice Syed Enayet Hossain on December 1 pronounced the judgment, scrapping lower court judgment in the two cases. The court came up with the verdict after holding a hearing on the death references, criminal and jail appeals filed in the two cases lodged over the grenade attack on a rally in the city.

"Death Reference is rejected, all appeals are allowed, all rules are absolute" said the identical short judgments pronounced by the High Court.

"The court today scrapped the lower court judgment and acquitted all the convicts, including Tarique Rahman and Lutfuzzaman Babar. It rejected all the death references and allowed all the appeals. The court also observed that the lower court trial was illegal as it was not held in line with the law. No eyewitnesses were examined in the cases, rather all the witnesses, who were examined, heard about the incident," defence counsel Mohammad Shishir Manir said on that day.