Man in jail accused of joining procession, court opens suo moto case

A Rajshahi court has opened a suo moto miscellaneous case after a man who was in jail was named as an accused in a fresh case for allegedly taking part in a Jubo League-Chhatra League procession. The investigation has been handed to the superintendent of police of the Criminal Investigation Department in Rajshahi.

He has been asked to submit a report to the court by November 29. He said on Monday that he had received the court papers.

Earlier, on November 1, Senior Judicial Magistrate Sohanur Rahman Sohag of Rajshahi Amli Court-6 directed that a separate and independent miscellaneous case be opened under a new number. In the order, the court also quoted a news report published on October 18 in Ajker Patrika on the incident.

That day there was also a bail application for the accused, Hafizur Rahman. After the hearing, the court granted him bail on a bond of Tk 100.

Hafizur Rahman is a resident of Chandankoutha village in Tanore upazila of Rajshahi. He alleges that a local Jubo Dal worker is harassing him through the police because he refused to pay extortion money.

According to him, on September 23, Mahmudul Hasan, officer-in-charge of Tanore police station, picked him up from his home and showed him arrested in a political case filed on June 26, although he was not named in the first information report.

After serving 21 days in jail in that case, he was released on bail on October 15. He left the jail that day at 9:47pm. The same day he was named as an accused in another case at Tanore police station.

The first information report said a Jubo League and Chhatra League procession took place in Tanore at 8:10pm and that Hafizur took part in it. Yet at that time he was inside the jail.

In its order, the court said it was necessary to investigate independently whether Hafizur Rahman's name was included in the case with the intent to harm him even though he was not involved in the incident.

The court further said that instituting criminal proceedings against someone without lawful cause, with intent to cause harm, is a punishable offence under section 211 of the Penal Code. If a public servant prepares an incorrect document with intent to cause harm, it is punishable under section 167, and disobeying the law with such intent is punishable under section 166.

The order said this court is empowered under section 190(1)(c) of the Code of Criminal Procedure 1898 to take cognisance of those offences. The miscellaneous case was therefore opened to identify the police officers and other specific persons involved and to bring them to trial after taking action against them.

Sub-inspector Jahangir Alam of Tanore police station had named Hafizur and 21 others as accused in that case under the Anti-Terrorism Act. Asked on Monday how Hafizur was named as an accused although he was in jail at the time, he said he was on duty and had to file the case on the orders of higher authorities. He said he did not know about the court's suo moto case.

Rayhanul Islam, superintendent of police of the CID in Rajshahi, said he had been given charge of investigating the court's suo moto case. He received a copy of the order on Monday. He joined the post only two days ago, and said he would start the investigation after settling in.