The High Court has raised questions about the image of the Bangladesh Police after almost 4,000 cases were lodged against opposition political leaders and senior lawyers of the Supreme Court- including a few lodged against deceased people.
“What kind of a message would the public get if a ‘ghost case’ is filed against someone like Khandaker Mahbub Hossain, a senior Supreme Court lawyer?,” the court asked on Monday during the hearing of a case against Khandaker Mahbub, also the BNP vice-chairman.
The question was put forward by the High Court bench that comprised of Justices Mainul Islam Chowdhury and Md Ashraful Kamal.
Deputy Attorney General Ekramul Haque Tutul acted as the state counsel, while Dr Kamal Hossain and Barrister Moudud Ahmed stood for Khandaker Mahbub Hossain.
After hearing statements from both sides, the High Court said these ghost cases were ruining the image and trustworthiness of the police forces.
When the court asked the state counsel to provide reasons for lodging such a fictitious case against Khandaker Mahbub Hossain, Tutul pointed that Mahbub was not only a lawyer, but also a politician.
"But there is no law that says lawyers cannot participate in politics," the court countered. "In the past, lawyers were the ones most involved with politics."
After that, the deputy attorney general asked for an extension. The court adjourned until Sunday.
The court also said it will pass its order on the case after hearing from the state attorney.
Later, Md Masud Rana, one of the defence lawyers, told reporters that from September 1 to September 20, at least 4,000 cases were filed against political leaders from different parts of the country. Some of these cases accused people who have been dead for the last decade.
Khandaker Mahbub Hossain was accused in four to five cases that were lodged in the span of three days.
"These cases say he was accused in explosive cases," Rana said.
"I do not think it is believable a person of his stature would get out in the dark of the night, and throw improvised bombs."
Rana also claimed several of these ghost cases had the names of people who had died in 2007, or are living abroad, as accused.
Previously on September 23, advocate AK Khan submitted a writ petition with a High Court branch on behalf of senior lawyers Khandaker Mahbub Hossain, Nitai Roy Chowdhury and Sanaullah Mia, urging the court to issue a ruling to find out the reasons for lodging 4,000 cases against more than 300,000 people, including senior pro-BNP lawyers, its leaders and activists.
At the same time, the petitioners also asked to court to issue a ruling for the creation of an independent probe committee to deal with the matter or stopinvestigations in those cases. The petitioners also asked for a court directive on the formation of an investigative committee under the Home Ministry as well, and on the assurance that no such cases will be lodged against anyone in the future.
Finally, the petitioners also urged the High Court to issue a rule asking the concerned authorities why the act of lodging fictitious cases against political leaders and activists by misusing police power, will not be declared illegal.
Nine people, including the home secretary, inspector general of police, commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP), deputy and additional deputy commissioners of Ramna Zone DMP, several officers in-charge of Ramna, Paltan and Shahbagh police stations, have been made respondentsto the writ petition.