A court has ordered a case to be filed against a lawyer, a court police officer and a clerk in Gaibandha for allegedly using forged birth certificates to show four adult accused as children and secure their bail, tampering with court order sheets and removing case records.
The order reached Gobindaganj Police Station around noon Thursday, following which police began the process of filing a case against the three accused. The order was issued on Wednesday by Mohammad Iftekhar Bin Aziz, judge of Gaibandha Children’s Court-2 and Senior District and Sessions Judge.
The accused are district bar lawyer Shefaul Islam Ripon, court clerk Hasan Ali and then Gobindaganj court (General Register) GR officer Abdur Sabur.
Police arrested four people — Palash Rana, Suman Mia, Shamim Chowdhury and Enamul Haque from different places in Gobindaganj in connection with several cases, including a hacking case.
Relatives of the accused later sought legal advice from lawyer Shefaul Islam to secure their release from jail. According to the allegations, the lawyer, in exchange for a large sum of money, arranged forged birth certificates and other documents to show Enamul Haque, a married adult hacker, as a minor.
The lawyer allegedly used the documents to secure bail for adult accused in three separate cases by presenting them as children.
The lawyer was also accused of taking a large amount of money from the accused and, with the help of court GR officer Abdur Sabur and clerk Hasan Ali, removing court records and tampering with orders recorded in the order sheets.
Several lawyers, including Sarwar Hossain and Mottalib Hossain, later urged the court to cancel the bail granted to the accused.
As the lawyers opposed the bail, the court took the matter into consideration and ordered an investigation.
The judge of Children’s Court-2 assigned the investigation to Gobindaganj Senior Judicial Magistrate SM Galib Hasan. He submitted his investigation report to the Children’s Court on August 19 and found the allegations to be true.
In his report, the magistrate recommended cancellation of lawyer Shefaul Islam Ripon’s licence, cancellation of the registration of his clerk Hasan Ali, and departmental action against police officer Abdur Sabur, the then GR officer of Gobindaganj court, for negligence of duty.
The court observed in the investigation report that such an incident was a “dark chapter” for the country’s overall judicial system.
After receiving the investigation report, Judge Mohammad Iftekhar Bin Aziz directed the bench assistant of the Gobindaganj Senior Judicial Magistrate’s Court to file a case with Gobindaganj Police Station against the accused.
Gobindaganj Police Station Officer-in-Charge Mozammel Haque said they had received the court order and were taking necessary legal steps.