The two brothers Mohammad Sobahan and Mohammad Selim lived in the South Begunbari slum in the city's Tejgaon area.

Metropolitan Public Prosecutor (PP) Abdullah Mahmud Hasan on September 7 submitted two separate petitions along with a home ministry letters recommending the withdrawal of the cases saying the cases were 'politically motivated'.

Judge Mohammad Aman Ullah of the Fifth Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court, Dhaka on Sunday fixed October 10 and November 5 for hearing on the petitions.

According to the prosecution, a team of Tejgaon police led by its then officer-in-charge (OC) raided Nannu's shanty at South Begunbari and arrested Sobahan with 280 bottles of Phensidyl on November 11, 1999. Sensing the presence of police, his brother Selim and two others fled the scene.

Sub-inspector Sirajul Islam filed

a case in this connection under the Special Powers Act, 1974 against Sobahan, Selim and the two others with Tejgaon Police Station on the same day.

The investigation officer (IO) of the case pressed charges against the two brothers and dropped names of the two others in the charge sheet, as their involvement with the offence was not proved.

In the charge sheet, the IO mentioned three other cases against them were also pending with other courts in the capital.

The court could not complete its trial as the prosecution witnesses including the complainant of the case failed to appear before the court.

All steps had already been taken to produce witnesses before the court since the charges were framed against them on October 3, 1999.

In another case filed against them with the same police station it was alleged that a team of police on June 30, 2000 raided their shanty and seized 240 bottles of Phensidyl.

The IO pressed charges against the two brothers on July 23 the same year and the court framed charges against them on March 25, 2003. The court then recorded statements of three prosecution witnesses.

The home ministry in two letters on August 14 this year informed the district magistrate of Dhaka that it had decided to withdraw the charges against Sobahan and Selim as the charges were 'politically motivated'.

The ministry asked the district magistrate to hand over the matter to the metropolitan PP, who will arrange the withdrawal of the cases with permission from an appropriate court.

A senior lawyer Mohammad Mahbubul Haq of the Dhaka Bar Association told The Daily Star that he wonders how the cases against the two brothers filed for possessing Phensidyl could be 'politically motivated' and withdrawn.