If there has been one consistent criticism that has been brought up during the tenure of the interim government, it has been the rampant misuse of cases filed against individuals, many of whom have had little to no connection to the crimes committed in July and August.
Nowhere was this issue highlighted more profoundly than a Senior Supreme Court lawyer ZI Khan Panna, who had represented students during the anti-discrimination movement, being named in an attempted murder case. That he was the 94th accused in a list of 180 names compels us to question whether these cases are truly being filed to seek justice.
Such cases, filed in such an arbitrary manner, are only adding to a climate of uncertainty within the general populace; if even a Supreme Court lawyer can find his name in a list of accused, the average person feeling uneasy is only justified.
While it is good to see that the plaintiff has since filed an application to remove the name of the lawyer, it does not immediately solve the issue. That all these cases are being accepted, with hundreds being named in each individual case filed, and that this lawyer of the Supreme Court needed to be granted interim bail, does not paint out law enforcement or legal proceedings in a positive light.
At a time when the nation is still reeling not only from the Awami League’s decade and a half of misrule but also the violence from July and August, and with the interim government already with its hands full, these wrongful accusations are not helping in any manner whatsoever. We expect better from the interim government, and as a result, we expect better from those in charge of overseeing these wrongful accusations.
