The High Court yesterday directed the government to transfer the Aminbazar killing cases to Rab, saying the Criminal Investigation Department could not make significant progress in its investigations.

On the night of holy Shab-e-Barat on July 18 last year, a mob at Bardeshi village in Aminbazar beat six boys, all school and college students, dead and left another injured in the presence of the police, taking them for robbers.

The CID recently submitted a report to the court on its progress into investigating the two cases. Twelve suspects had been arrested and five of them had confessed io being involved in the killing, according to the report.

The report also named those who had made confessional statements. They are sand traders Abdul Hamid and Abdul Malek and local youths Mohammad Rana, Jamsher Ali alias N i h o r and Mohammad Alam.

In response to a petition filed by the victims' parents,

an HC bench of Justice Farah Mahbub and Justice Abdur Rob ordered the Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) to complete investigations into the cases within four months and submit a report to it.

Recording of the confessional statements in the CID's report had not been done properly, making way for the killers io escape with lesser punishment, the judges said.

The HC bench asked the inspector general of police (IGP) and Dhaka Metropolitan Police commissioner io transfer the responsibility for the investigations to Rab within seven days of getting the copy of the court order.

Sirajul Haque, additional special superintendent of police (CID), however, prayed to the court for more time to complete the investigations.

The HC earlier directed the CID to finish the task by July 17.

Following the incident, one Abdul Malek and Subinspector of Savar Model Police Station Anwar Hossain filed the cases. The CID has been investigating the cases since.

The victims' parents yesterday filed the petition with the HC, seeking orders on the authorities to transfer the cases to Rab. In the petition, they said the CID had failed to investigate the cases properly.