The trial proceedings related to drug abuse, trade and trafficking takes longer than other cases, creating a huge backlog in the courts across the country.
This makes it difficult to stick charges against the suspects as they get released on bail on the grounds of delay in trial proceedings, and once they are out criminals take advantage of the situation to repeat the same offences, sources in the law enforcement agencies and legal experts told the Dhaka Tribune.
The last seven years, have seen more than 425,000 cases related to narcotics been filed across the country, and as many as 250,000 are currently on trial in different courts. These cases have been filed by the Department of Narcotics Control (DNC), police, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), and Bangladesh Coast Guard.
Amid all this, the government has been conducting a nationwide anti-narcotics drive since mid-May this year, where almost 13,000 people have been so far apprehended for suspected connections with the drug trade, according to the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Officials at law enforcement agencies as well as lawyers say error in the system of dealing with the cases, lack of coordination among the related parties, and witnesses’ reluctance to testify before the court are the major reasons that impede these proceedings.
Added to these reasons are faulty first information reports, contradiction between the accounts of witnesses who observe police making records of drug busts and the state-produced witnesses, and failure to produce neutral witnesses, which results in more 60% of the suspects being acquitted.
In April this year, a meeting of the secretaries of several ministries decided that the ministries of home affairs and law would find a way to expedite the prolonged trials of drug cases, sources in the government said.
The Ministry of Law will also revise the anti-drug laws, they added.
What causes the delay?
Shahdeen Malik, senior advocate at the Supreme Court, blamed under-qualified prosecution and their lack of efficiency for the backlog of narcotics cases in the courts.
“The public prosecutors are not qualified enough to deal with criminal cases,” he told the Dhaka Tribune. “They are being appointed based on their political affiliation; not merit or experience. This is why we need to introduce an independent service for public prosecutors.
“On the other hand, when law enforcement agencies seize drugs from one’s possession, they need to record all the details of the bust in the presence of witnesses,” he said. “The witnesses have to testify before the court. If, during the trial of a case, police fail to produce the witnesses, how is a judge supposed to deliver a verdict?”
The chief public prosecutor at Dhaka Metropolitan Session Judge’s Court, Abdullah Abu, said prosecutors could hardly be blamed for the lengthy trial proceedings when in most cases the witnesses do not want to testify.
“Most of these people don’t have permanent addresses, and when they change their addresses, they do not notify the police. As a result, when the trial starts – say six or seven months after a case has been filed – they [the witnesses] cannot be found.”
Abu further said witnesses often change sides in fear or for money offered by the accused.
“It’s the duty of the police to present the witnesses before the court. It is not the neglect of the part of the prosecution.”
Saheli Ferdous, assistant inspector general (AIG media) of police, recently told reporters that by the time a police official investigating a drug-related case is summoned by the court to testify, years go by and the official, in the meantime, is transferred to a different area. Similarly, witnesses move to different addresses.
Until they can be reached, the court has to change the hearing dates frequently.
Further, in many cases, summons issued by the court do not reach the concerned police station in time.
If the mobile phone numbers of the witnesses could be recorded in the case documents, they could be reached easily, Saheli commented.
