Ex-civil surgeon gets bail in case filed over scuffle with Lakshmipur ADC

A Lakshmipur court has granted bail to a former civil surgeon, who was sentenced to three months in prison on Monday following a brawl between him and the district's additional deputy commissioner general. Additional District Magistrate Mir Shawkat Ali issued the bail order on a Tk5,000 bond, after Dr Salahuddin Sharif’s lawyer filed a petition with the court on Tuesday morning. A mobile court has sentenced former Lakshmipur acting Civil Surgeon Salahuddin Sharif to three months in jail for “mistreating” Lakshmipur Additional Deputy Commissioner Shaikh Murshidul Islam. The former civil surgeon and the ADC had engaged in a scuffle over entry into the schoolyard of Kakoli Shishu School, which is under the supervision of the district administration, in the town. Dr Salhuddin and ADC Murshidul went to the school to pick up their grandson and son respectively. Later, police sent Salahuddin to jail. Meanwhile, a High Court bench has ordered ADC Murshidul and Md Nuruzzaman, Lakshmipur sadar upazila executive officer [UNO] who manages the mobile courts under his jurisdiction, to appear before it on December 13 to explain the scuffle incident and sentencing of the mobile court. The division bench of Justice Kazi Rezaul Haque and Justice Mohammad Ullah came up with ruling after hearing a petition filed by two Supreme Court lawyers- Kamal Hossain Niazi and Ashfaqur Rahman. The court also issued a ruling asking a number of respondents to explain why the verdict by a mobile court over a “personal dispute” should not be declared illegal. The secretary to the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Ministry, secretary to the Ministry of Public Administration, secretary to the Home Ministry, Lakshmipur deputy commissioner and additional deputy commissioner, Lakshmipur sadar UNO, and incumbent civil surgeon of the district have been made respondents to the ruling. In Lakshmipur, doctors and medical technologists of Lakshmipur Sadar Hospital have been observing work abstention since Tuesday morning, protesting the verdict of the mobile court, reports UNB. According to protesters, they will continue their programme until withdrawal of the case and canceling of the punishment, said physician Ashfakur Rahman Mamun, district unit president of Bangladesh Medical Association (BMA).