Sayeedi case witness Sukhranjan Bali files complaints against Hasina, SK Sinha, 30 others

Sukhranjan Bali, a witness in the crimes against humanity case against the late Jamaat-e-Islami leader Delawar Hossain Sayeedi, has filed a complaint at the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) against former prime minister Sheikh Hasina and 31 others, accusing them of his enforced disappearance and torture.

The accused include former chief justice SK Sinha and former ICT prosecutor Rana Dasgupta.

Bali submitted the allegations to the ICT Prosecution Division today, said Prosecutor Gazi MH Tamim.

Bali, a carpenter from Umedpur village in Pirojpur, was a prosecution witness in the Sayeedi case. On 5 November 2012, just before his testimony at the ICT, he spoke in favour of Sayeedi and soon after disappeared from the court premises.

According to reports, Bali was allegedly pushed across the Indian border after his testimony and handed over to the Indian Border Security Force by personnel from the Bangladesh Police and Border Guard Bangladesh. He was later found in Dumdum jail in West Bengal.

After serving a five-year sentence there for illegal entry into India, he returned home in 2018.

After filing the charges today, Bali told reporters that the prosecution forced him to testify against Sayeedi. He claimed that on 5 November 2012, when he came to testify in favour of Sayeedi, police in plainclothes picked him up in a microbus. 

He alleged that he was abducted, detained, and physically tortured out of political vengeance.

"He [Bali] has submitted allegations to the Chief Prosecutor's Office, stating that he was abducted and held captive, subjected to enforced disappearance and torture, and detained in an Indian prison for an extended period," said Prosecutor Tamim.

Sayeedi, who was sentenced to death in 2013 in the crimes against humanity case, died on 14 August 2023 while receiving treatment at Dhaka's Bangladesh Medical University Hospital.