The High Court has ordered the government and police to pay for the treatment of a CNG-run auto-rickshaw driver who was shot by a Sher-e-Bangla Nagar police station officer and then framed for a crime he did not commit.
An HC bench comprised of Justice Kazi Rezaul Haque and Justice Abu Taher Md Saifur Rahman passed the order yesterday, responding to a writ petition filed by Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK).
The HC asked the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) commissioner to submit a report by November 18 on actions taken by the police against those involved in the incident.
The court issued a rule for four weeks asking why departmental action should not be taken against the accused and why direction concerning the prevention of abuse of power should not be given.
The home secretary, DMP commissioner, officer-in-charge of Sher-e-Bangla Nagar police station and sub-inspector of the police station and accused in the case, Anwar Hossain, were made the respondents of the rule.
Anwar Hossain was arrested on Wednesday.
The victim, CNG-run auto-rickshaw driver Md Shah Alam, 27, was shot in the legs in the capital’s Agargaon area by Hossain on October 19, and later framed by showing him arrested in an arms case.
Shah Alam is now undergoing treatment at the National Institute of Traumatology & Orthopaedic Rehabilitation (Nitor) in Agargaon.
Golam Faruk, associate professor at Nitor who is treating Alam, said the victim needs several bags of AB positive blood before he is operated on.
Wahidul Islam, additional deputy commissioner of Tejgaon division police, who heads three-member probe body into the incident, said the primary investigation suggested that Anwar shot Alam over some enmity involving an extramarital affair but did not want to say more because the investigation was under way.
Speaking to the Dhaka Tribune, Shah Alam said he had planned to inform Anwar’s wife Tanzila about the SI’s extramarital affairs. When the policeman heard about this, he used his informant, Siraj, to call Alam and picked him up around 9:30pm on Sunday with the aid of four other policemen.
The policemen then shot him with shot guns around 12:30am and then showed him arrested as a criminal in an illegal arms possession case.
Wahid said police were investigating the source of arms and ammunition which Anwar showed in the seizure list in the case against Alam. He said they might interrogate the other policemen who participated, if necessary.
National Human Rights Commission Chairman Mizanur Rahman visited Shah Alam at the hospital yesterday.
Mizanur said law enforcement officers who are armed should undergo mental check-ups to determine whether they are capable of safely carrying arms.