Law-&-Order
One to die, 4 get life term for killing man in Cox’s Bazar
A court here on Thursday sentenced a person to death and four people to life imprisonment for killing a man in Larpara area of Cox’s Bazar town in 2002.
The condemned convict is Abdul Khaleq, 48, while the lifers are Md. Kajol, Amir Hamza, Selim Ullah and Abdul Goffar.
Read: Tortured for 3 days over loan default, 30-yr-old dies in Lalmonirhat
The court also fined the lifers Tk 100,000 each, in default, to suffer one year more in jail.
According to the prosecution, Akter Hossain, 35, son of Zamir Ahmed, hailing from Ratnapalong of Ukhiya upazila, was shot dead on June 29, 2002 over a trifling matter.
Later, the victim's elder brother Abbas Uddin filed a police complaint.
Read: Verdict in Sinha murder case on Jan 31
After examining all the records and witnesses, Cox’s Bazar Additional District and Sessions Judge Abdullah Al Mamun handed down the judgment.
Three people were acquitted.
Verdict in Sinha murder case on Jan 31
The judgment in the murder case of Maj (retd) Sinha Mohammad Rashed Khan will be delivered on January 31.
Cox’s Bazar District and Sessions Judge Mohammad Ismail will pronounce the verdict, said Public Prosecutor Faridul Alam.
On July 31, 2020, Sinha was shot dead at the Shamlapur police check-post in Baharchhara Union of Cox's Bazar while returning to town after filming for a documentary.
Read: Sinha murder trial: arguments remain incomplete on the third day
On August 5, 2020, Sinha's sister, Sharmin Shahriar Ferdous, filed a case with Teknaf Senior Judicial Magistrate Court accusing nine members of law enforcement agencies of being involved in the killing, including former officer-in-charge of Teknaf model police station Pradeep Kumar Das and Baharchhara police outpost inspector Liakat Ali.
On December 13, same year, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) submitted a charge sheet against 15 people, including police source Ayaz and three APBn members, in connection with the case.
On June 27, 2021, a Cox’s Bazar court framed charges against them.
Read: Sinha’s conviction a bad precedent: Gayeshwar
All the 15 accused are currently in jail. Of them, 12 have given confessional statements before court except ex-OC Pradeep Kumar Das, constable Sagar Dev and Rubel Sharma.
Other accused in the case are- Inspector of Baharchara Police outpost Liakat Ali, sub-inspectors Nandolal Rakkhit and Tutul, assistant sub-inspector Liton Mia; constables Shafanur Karim, Kamal Hossain, Abdullah AL Mamun, , Md Rajib and Md Abdullah, ASI of APBN Md Shahjahan and Nurul Amin, Md Nizamuddin and Ayaz Uddin.
Two men to remain in prison until death for killing a 7-year-old girl
A Rangpur court on Tuesday sentenced two men to imprisonment until death for killing a seven-year-old girl for ransom money nine years ago, court officials said. Rangpur Women and Child Repression Prevention Tribunal-2 Judge Mohammad Rokonuzzaman handed down the sentence to Russel Mia and Abul Kalam of Pirgacha upazila of Rangpur district. Russel was 19 and Kalam 20 when they committed the crime.
Read: Woman sentenced to life imprisonment for husband’s murder in Feni The court acquitted four others as allegations brought against them could not be proved. According to the prosecution, the convicts kidnapped Ria Akter, daughter of Abdur Rahim of Paran village in Pirgachha upazila on December 24 in 2013 and kept her under lock and key in an unknown place. Later, they made a phone call to Rahim and demanded Tk 4 lakh as ransom. That time Rahim lodged a general diary with Pirgachha Police Station. On January 19 the same year police arrested Russel after tracking his mobile phone and following his confessional statement they arrested Salauddin. Police recovered the decomposed body of Ria from a toilet of a house.
Read:Absconding rapist sentenced to life imprisonment in Rangpur During a confessional statement, Salauddin admitted that they killed Ria after failing to get ransom money. On June 22 in 2014, police submitted charge sheet against six people including Russel and Salahuddin.
Tk 10cr worth drugs seized in Teknaf
Border Guard Bangladesh on Tuesday seized 2.064kg of crystal methamphetamine or Ice worth Tk 10.32 crore from Teknaf.
Acting on a tip off, a BGB-2 patrol team conducted a drive in the Tamarisk tree forest adjacent to Marine Drive Road near the Nokhalipara area, some 3km from the Teknaf sea beach.
Read: 5 endangered jungle cat cubs rescued in Kushtia
The drug wrapped in a polythene bag was buried under a tree, BGB said in a statement.
However, the traffickers of the seized drugs could not be arrested during the drive, said BGB-2.
Two jailed for illegal soil extraction in Chandpur
A mobile court in Chandpur has sentenced two persons to a month in jail for illegal soil extraction in the Haimchar area.
The convicts are Mohammad Noor Alam Hawlader (35), son of Abdul Mannan Hawlader of Uzirpur upazila, and Md Russell (25), son of Ibrahim of Madhya Badarpur village of Noakhali Chatkhil upazila.
Read: Ex-Sylhet DIG (Prison) gets 8 years jail
Sources said the land grabbers had been illegally extracting soil for a long time in the border area of Haimchar union on the west bank of the Meghna river.
Acting on a tip-off, local authorities, led by upazila nirbahi officer Chai Thoaihla Chowdhury, raided the area on Monday, arrested the two from their hideout and sentenced them to a month in jail.
Rohingya held with 5 lakh Yaba pills in Cox’s Bazar
Members of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) have detained a Rohingya youth along with 5 lakh Yaba bills from Balukhali in Ukhiya upazila of Cox’s Bazar.
The detainee is Md Soidul Amin, a resident of Balukhali camp in Ukhiya.
ASP Abu Salam Chowdhury, Senior Assistant Director of Rab-15, said tipped off, a team of Rab-15 conducted a drive in Balukhali Bridge area around 8pm on Sunday and detained Soidul.
Six or five of his associates managed to flee the scene.
During the drive, 5 lakh Yaba pills and a battery-run auto-rickshaw used for smuggling were seized from his possession.
In primary interrogation, the detainee confessed that his gang has been involved in Yaba smuggling through the route for a long time, said ASP Abu Salam.
Court directs investigation on GD filed by Murad’s wife
A Dhaka court on Sunday directed police to investigate the General Diary filed against former junior minister Murad Hassan by his wife Dr Jahanara Ehsan.
Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Mamunur Rashid passed the order, said Fuad Uddin, Officer of General Registration Office of Dhanmondi police station.
On Saturday, Investigation Officer, Sub Inspector Rajib Hasan appealed for permission to investigate the case.
Earlier in the day, three licensed firearms of former State Minister for Information and Broadcasting Dr Murad Hassan, and his wife Dr Jahanara Ehsan were handed over to Dhanmondi Police Station.
Also read: Embattled Murad, wife hand over licensed firearms to police
On Thursday, Dr Jahanara registered the GD against her beleaguered husband with Dhanmondi police station accusing him of torturing and issuing her a death threat.
She called 999, the National Emergency Service, seeking cooperation from the police to save her from her husband’s torture.
As police visited her residence, Jahanara told law enforcers that she has been subjected to physical and mental torture by her husband and even he threatened to kill her.
Also read: Murad in hot water again as wife files GD against him
On December 7 last, Murad Hassan resigned from the cabinet following the instruction of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for his offensive and indecent remarks on women.
After the resignation from the cabinet, Murad had left the country in his desperate bid to hide amid widespread criticism at home, but his attempt to stay abroad went in vain as he had to get back home having failed to enter Canada and the UAE.
HC seeks govt report on preventing sexual harassment in the workplace
The High Court on Sunday directed the government to submit a report on the steps taken to prevent sexual harassment of women and children in all governmental and non-governmental institutions of the country, including educational institutions, following an HC order in 2009.
A HC bench of Justice Farah Mahbub and Justice SM Maniruzzaman passed the order after hearing a writ petition filed on behalf of rights organisation Ain O Salish Kendra (ASK).
Read:HC asks law enforcement agencies to stop issuing contradictory statements on Cox’s Bazar gang rape case
The Cabinet Secretary, Law Secretary, Public Administration Secretary and Family Planning Secretary have been asked to report the steps to prevent sexual harassment taken by the government in three months.
The court also issued a rule on the preliminary hearing of the writ petition.
Lawyer Syeda Nasrin and Md Shahinuzzaman appeared for the petition in the court.
Lawyer Syeda Nasrin said the High Court had issued a guideline in 2009 to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace, including educational institutions. But it has not been implemented yet.
For this reason a writ was filed on behalf of Ain O Salish Kendra (ASK) on October 21 last year. The secretaries of 40 ministries, including public administration, the registrar general of the Supreme Court, the Bar Council and the University Grants Commission (UGC) were made respondents in that petition.
Read:HC orders appointment of 84 BCS successful candidates
On August 7, 2008, Advocate Salma Ali, Executive Director of the Bangladesh National Woman Lawyers' Association (BNWLA), filed a writ petition with the High Court seeking its directions to prevent sexual harassment of women and children in the workplace and on educational institutions.
On May 14, 2009, the High Court bench headed by Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain issued several directives including forming committee on prevention of sexual harassment to take complaints in all institutions--educational institutions, governmental and non-governmental institutions.
Embattled Murad, wife hand over licensed firearms to police
Three licensed firearms of former State Minister for Information and Broadcasting Dr Murad Hassan, and his wife Dr Jahanara Ehsan have been handed over to Dhanmondi Police Station.
A day after the filing of a General Diary (GD) by Dr Jahanara against Murad, the couple handed over the firearms to the police station on Saturday night, Ikram Ali Mia, Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Dhanmondi Police Station told UNB on Sunday.
Read: Murad in hot water again as wife files GD against him
Among the three firearms, the OC said, one shotgun and one pistol belong to Dr Murad Hasan, while another shotgun belongs to his wife.
Replying to a question, Ikram said the couple deposited the arms at the police station willingly following the GD.
He said they will start an investigation into the complaint of Jahanara after getting permission from the court. “We’ve already sought permission from the court to carry out the investigation, but we’re yet to get the court order.”
On Thursday evening, Dr Jahanara registered the GD against her beleaguered husband with the same police station accusing him of torturing and issuing her a death threat.
She called 999, the National Emergency Service, seeking cooperation from the police to save her from her husband’s torture.
As police visited her residence, Jahanara told law enforcers that she has been subjected to physical and mental torture by her husband and even he threatened to kill her.
Read: Another case lodged against Murad and Nahid in Pabna
On December 7 last, Murad Hassan resigned from the cabinet following the instruction of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for his offensive and indecent remarks on women.
After the resignation from the cabinet, Murad had left the country in his desperate bid to hide amid widespread criticism at home, but his attempt to stay abroad went in vain as he had to get back home having failed to enter Canada and the UAE.
Govt to do everything to ease case backlog, says Law Minister
Law Minister Anisul Huq on Sunday said the government will do whatever is needed to ease the long-running backlog of cases in the country’s courts.
“We’ll follow all the methods practised in the world to minimise the backlog of cases in courts,” he told reporters after joining a programme at the city’s Judicial Administration Training Institute.
The Law Minister was speaking at the inauguration of the 43rd and 44th special founding courses for assistant judges and equivalent judges there.
Read: No scope now for law on EC formation: Law Minister
He said it is now a big challenge for judges to minimise the number of pending cases in the country’s courts. “If this challenge can’t be tackled right now, it’ll get even harder in the future.”
More than 34 lakh cases are pending with both the higher and lower courts across the country, according to a statistics placed in Parliament by the Law Minister in October last.
Of them, over five lakh cases are pending with the higher court and the rest with the lower ones.
Describing the judges as the driven force of the judiciary, Anisul Huq said the President would appoint judges to the High Court Division of the Supreme Court whenever he deems it necessary.
He said judges are being given different sorts of training at home and abroad. The capacity of the Judicial Administration Training Institute has been enhanced, he said.
Now70 participants can join two foundation training courses simultaneously at the institute, he said, adding that it has been possible due to the effective steps taken by the government.
Read: Law minister rules out urgent enactment of law on election commission
Earlier at the programme, the Law Minister said the government is constructing high-rise infrastructures at the district level for judicial purposes. The judges are receiving training in Australia, China, Japan and India alongside the local ones.
He said the government raised the salaries and allowances of the judges significantly in addition to ensuring car facility for them. The purpose of all this is to ensure timely justice and meet the public expectation.
Law and Justice Division Secretary Md Golam Sarwar also spoke at the function held with Director General of the training institute Justice Nazmun Ara Sultana in the chair.