Law-&-Order
HC stays trial against journo Kajol in 3 cases under DSA
The High Court (HC) on Wednesday stayed for two months the trial proceedings of three cases filed against photojournalist Shafiqul Islam Kajol under the Digital Security Act .
The HC bench of Justice ASM Abdul Mobin and Justice Md Atowar Rahman passed the order after hearing on Kajol’s petition.
Barrister Jyotirmoy Barua appeared for Kajol and deputy attorney general Sujit Chatterjee represented the state.
At the same time, the HC sought all the documents of these cases from the lower court.
The High Court also fixed July 28 for hearing on these appeals.
On February 1, barrister Jyotirmoy filed the petition with the High Court seeking a stay on the framing of charges against Kajol in the three DSA cases.
On November 8 last year, the Cyber Tribunal in Dhaka framed charges against Kajol in three cases filed under the stringent law.
READ: HC grants three more months for converting to digital set-top boxes
Kajol went missing on March 10, 2020, a day after Magura-1 MP Saifuzzaman Shikhor filed a case against him and 31 others, including Manab Zamin Editor Matiur Rahman Chowdhury.
They were sued under the act for publishing and sharing an article on various social media platforms about expelled Jubo Mohila League leader Shamima Noor Papia.
Two other cases were filed against Kajol at Kamrangir Char and Hazaribagh police stations, respectively, under the same act on March 10 and 11 last year.
After his 53 days of disappearance, Kajol was detained by Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) near the Benapole border on May 3, 2020, and produced in a Jashore court the same day.
Although the court granted him bail in the case, he was sent to jail as the Kotwali police brought another charge against him under Section 54 of CrPC.
On November 24, 2020, the photojournalist secured bail in another case filed against him under the DSA.
On December 17 that year, the High Court granted him bail in the remaining two cases filed under the DSA, clearing the way for his release. He was freed from Dhaka Central Jail on December 25 last year.
'Wanted criminal' held in Chapainawabganj
Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) Wednesday claimed to have arrested a wanted criminal from the district of Chapainawabganj Tuesday night.
The arrestee has been identified as Jahirul Islam, 38, son of Sadikul Islam of the Nandalalpur area in Chapainawabganj’s Gomostapur upazila.
Read: Chuadanga: Man gets life term for killing ex-wife's mother
Jahirul was arrested from the upazila’s Bagdanga lake area by a Rab-5 team, the elite force said. Two pistols, six bullets and two magazines have been seized from his possession, Rab said in a release.
The operation was led by Company Commander Ruh-Fi-Tahmin Taukir of Rab-5 on a tip-off, according to the elite force. The arrestee was wanted in a total of 13 cases, including theft, robbery and under the Explosive Substances Act.
Read: Man detained with 34 gold bars at Chattogram airport
A fresh case will be filed against Jahirul at the local police station.
Chuadanga: Man gets life term for killing ex-wife's mother
A court in Chuadanga has sentenced a man to life in jail for killing his ex-wife's mother some eight years ago.
Chuadanga district judge Zia Haider on Tuesday handed down the punishment to Atiar Rahman, son of late Sher Ali Mandal of Jashore's Guatli village, and also sentenced four others to seven years in the case.
Read: Three held for killing 8-yr-old boy in Barishal
According to the case statement, Atiar married Josna Khatun, daughter of Abdul Quader of Azimpur School Para in Darshana municipal area of Damurhuda upazila. Later, they divorced.
In June 2014, Atiar, along with the four others, went to his ex-wife's house and tried to abduct her.
When Tahmina Khatun, her mother, resisted the kidnap attempt, the five hacked her with sharp weapons, leaving her seriously injured. She was rushed to Chuadanga Sadar hospital, where doctors declared her dead on arrival.
Read: HC grants anticipatory bail to four pro-BNP lawyers
On a complaint from the victim's husband, an FIR for murder was lodged against the five at Damurhuda police station. And on October 31, 2014, investigating officer Mizanur Rahman submitted a chargesheet in the court against the five.
4 get life term for 2008 deaths of two brothers in Sitakunda
A court has sentenced four people to life in prison in a case of beating to death of two brothers in Chattogram's Sitakunda.
At the same time, they have been fined Tk 20,000 each and additional 4 months non-payment imprisonment.
Chattogram Fifth Additional District and Sessions Judge Ashok Kumar Dutta passed the order on Tuesday
Confirming the order, Public Prosecutor (PP) Lokman Hossain Chowdhury said that the accused were Abul Kalam Azad, Badsha Alam, Faruk Mia and Md. Sekander of Baro Aulia area of Sitakunda upazila.
READ: Youth gets life term for raping Thakurgaon woman
According to court sources, on April 20, 2008, Harun and his cousin Zahidul were beaten to death inside a factory in Baro Aulia area of Sitakunda over establishing dominance and enmity.
Harun's father Mohammad Ali filed a case over the murder at Sitakunda police station.
On September 18 of that year, the police submitted a chargesheet against the four, to the speedy trial tribunal.
The four accused were present at the court when the verdict was announced, said PP Lokman.
Three held for killing 8-yr-old boy in Barishal
Three people have been arrested in connection with the murder of an eight-year-old boy in Barishal's Ujirpur upazila, police said on Tuesday.
The deceased was identified as Dipto Mandal, son of Dipak Mandal from Harta union. His body was found stuffed in a sack in a pond around 5.30am on Tuesday, four days after he went missing.
The arrestees have been identified as Ratan Biswas, his wife Eva, and Nayan Shil, said Ali Arshad, officer-in-charge of Ujirpur police station.
Read: 59-year-old woman 'ends life' in Rajshahi
The boy went missing from his house around 11pm on Friday. The next day, his father Dipak filed a missing person's complaint at the police station, the OC said.
“In the early hours of Tuesday, locals and his family members nabbed Ratan and Nayan suspecting their role in the boy's murder. The two have admitted to killing the boy and dumping his body in the pond," he added.
The body has been sent for post-mortem, he said.
HC grants anticipatory bail to four pro-BNP lawyers
The High Court on Monday granted six weeks’ anticipatory bail to four pro-BNP lawyers in a case filed over attacking pro-Awami League lawyers and vandalising the nameplate of Supreme Court Bar Association Secretary Abdun Noor.
It also directed two other pro-BNP lawyers accused in the case to surrender before the court.
An HC bench comprising Justice Jahangir Hossain and Justice SM Mozibur Rahman passed the order taking the plea of the accused.
Jatiyatabadi Ainjibi Forum Supreme Court unit general secretary and BNP’s national executive committee member Gazi Md Kamrul Islam Sajal, Jatiyatabadi Ainjibi Forum Supreme Court unit assistant general secretary Rasel Ahmed, Supreme Court Bar Association executive member Kamrul Islam and Supreme Court Bar Association information and research affairs secretary Sagor Hossain were the ones granted anticipatory bail.
On the other hand, lawyers Abdul Kaiyum and Nure Alam Siddique have been ordered to surrender.
READ: HC directs UGC to find out about pvt unis' benefits for FF children, underprivileged
Khandaker Mahbub Hossain, AJ Mohammad Ali, Joynul Abedin, Mahbub Uddin Khokon, and Ruhul Kuddus Kajol stood for the accused while Deputy Attorney General Md Sarwar Hossain Bappy represented the state.
According to the case statement, pro-BNP and pro-Awami League lawyers locked in a clash over the post of secretary of the Supreme Court Bar Association on May 18.
The following day, Rabiul Hasan, an administrative officer of the SCBA, filed a case with Shahbagh police station, mentioning six names.
HC directs UGC to find out about pvt unis' benefits for FF children, underprivileged
The High Court has asked the University Grants Commission (UGC) for information on the number of students at private universities availing benefits as offspring of freedom fighters, or stipends as poor or under-privileged since 2010.
Besides, the court also asked the UGC to report how much money has been allotted for research by the private universities since 2010.
UGC will have to submit the information to the High Court within the next 60 days.
The bench of Justice Md Mojibur Rahman Mia and Justice Khizir Hayat passed the order with a rule on Monday.
In the rule, the court also wanted to know why the inaction of the government in implementation of a law to facilitate 6 percent of the student body at private universities from poor backgrounds should not be declared illegal.
Barrister Jyotirmoy Barua, counsel for writ petitioners the Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB), said: "According to section 9(4) of the Private Universities Act, 6 percent seats should be reserved for the children of freedom fighters and meritorious students every year. According to section 9(6) of the law, a certain portion of the budget fixed by the University Grants Commission should be kept for research in the budget of private universities every year. These accounts must be sent to UCG. The UGC will later send the report to the ministry, and the ministry will send it to the parliamentary committee. They will take necessary action. We have tried to find out on behalf of the Consumers Association of Bangladesh, and our investigation found that since 2010, no private university has met these requirements."
READ: HC orders probe on ‘disappearance’ of birth and death registration info
The education secretary and UGC chairman are among those made respondents of the rule and they have to explain to the court within the next four weeks.
The court has also fixed August 14 for the next hearing on the writ.
Deputy Attorney General Bipul Bagmar stood for the state.
Architect Mubasshar Hussein, on behalf of CAB, filed the writ petition last week.
Overzealous woman in viral incident at Narsingdi station held for assault
A woman who assaulted a girl for wearing western attire in an incident last week at Narsingdi Railway Station has been detained from Shibpur upazila, Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) announced on Monday.
The detainee was identified as Marzia Aktar alias Shila alias Shayla, a matchmaker of Narsingdi Sadar upazila.
Rab-11 Narsingdi Camp Commander Flight Lieutenant Touhidul Mobin Khan said they detained the woman from Shibpur upazila in the early hours of Monday.
Also read: Man held for assaulting girl wearing western attire at Narsingdi rail station
On Monday, a court sent the woman on remand for three days, said Ferdous Ahmed Biswas, officer-in-charge of Bhairab Railway Police Station.
On May 20, a three-member team from Narsingdi District Administration detained another man named Ismail Hossain, 25, after identifying him from CCTV footage of the incident, said ATM Musa, station master of the railway station.
On May 18, a woman at the Narsingdi Railway Station made distasteful comments at the young girl and two boys with her who were waiting at the station for a train.
The girl was wearing a crop-top and jeans and the boys were also wearing western outfits.
At one point the woman locked in an altercation with them and some local miscreants started beating the youths and harassed the girl, said the station master.
“The girl had to take shelter in the station master’s room to save herself. The matter was resolved later with my intervention,” said ATM Musa.
The matter sparked debate among netizens after video footage of the incident went viral on social media and several news media published reports on it.
14 bike lifters held in Magura
In separate drives police arrested 14 members of a bike-lifting gang from different areas in Magura district on Monday.
The arrestees are- Md. Nazmul Hasan Munna, 28, Md. Monirul Islam Majed Madhu ,23, Md. Shawkat Hossain,21, Jewel Rana ,24, Md. Tuhin Hossain ,22, Md. Ibrahim Hossain Shakil ,22, Md. Sagar Sikder ,22, Md. Enamul Hossain Tamim ,20, Md. Rabiul Islam Robi 23, Md. Rezaul Islam ,35, Shahidul Islam ,40, Md. Enamul Biswas 33,, Md. Salam Sheikh ,38, and Abul Bashar Mollah ,23.
Read: HC orders probe on ‘disappearance’ of birth and death registration info
Tipped off, police conducted the drives and arrested them from Doarpara, Batikadanga and Vaina Mor areas, said Additional Superintendent of Police Mohammad Kamrul Hasan in a press briefing on Monday afternoon.
The law enforcers also recovered 12 motorcycles from their possession during the drives, he said.
Read: JCD leader sues 33 BCL men for 'attempted murder'
During preliminary interrogation, they confessed that they have long been involved in stealing motorcycles.
The arrestees were sent to jail, the officer added.
HC orders probe on ‘disappearance’ of birth and death registration info
The High Court has directed the government to investigate the disappearance of a large amount of birth and death registration information from the database stored on the server.
A HC bench of Justice Mojibur Rahman Mia and Justice Khizir Hayat passed the order after hearing of a writ petition filed in the public interest on Sunday.
The HC also issued a rule questioning why the government’s inaction to prevent the difficulties faced by the people in obtaining birth and death certificates and non-investigation of the disappearance of a large numer of information from the relevant servers should not be declared illegal.
Also read: Stern action against harassment in issuing birth certificates: Minister
At the same time, the HC asked why the creation of a central database should not be directed as Rule-19 of Birth and Death Registration Act-2019.
The LGRD Secretary, the Registrar General of the Birth and Death Registration of LGRD, the Director General of the Planning-Monitoring, Evaluation and Inspection Office and the Joint Secretary of the Law Department of the ministry have been asked to submit the probe report responding to the rule in four weeks.
Lawyer Md Tanvir Ahmed appeared for the writ petition in the court while Deputy Attorney General Bipul Bagmar represented the state.
Md Tanvir submitted legal notice in this regard on April 4 attaching a report published in a national daily on March 12 entitled 'Citizens in Extreme suffering with birth registration certificate' and on February 4, 'Birth Certificate: Birth registration information of millions of people in Bangladesh not listed on server'.
The report stated that the birth registration law was enacted in 2004 and came into force in 2006. Birth registration certificate is mandatory for various important activities including passport issue, marriage registration, admission in educational institutions, obtaining driving license, land registration.
In the beginning handwritten certificates were given. Then at the end of 2010 an initiative was taken to digitalise it.
At that time the government also provided a separate allocation for computer training to the registrars concerned. But not all the information was digitised at that time, especially of the city corporations and densely populated areas, the report said.
Also read:Birth Registration in Bangladesh: Application Process, Essential Papers
According to another report, the Registrar General's Office in charge of registration of births and deaths in Bangladesh and officials of the Dhaka City Corporation say that millions of people who had previously obtained birth registration certificates now need to be re-registered online as their previous registrations have disappeared.
The birth registration of these individuals has not been updated online and it will no longer be possible to transfer old data to the new server. Authorities concerned are also struggling to cope with the large number of online birth registrations of a large number of school students.