Chief Whip ASM Feroz allegedly encroached upon the authority of the speaker by sending a letter to the police suggesting that the parliament officer Sujit Kumar Dey, whom the police linked with aiding a fake major intruding on the MP hostel, should not be arrested or harassed.
Abdur Rahim, an officer of the parliament secretariat on Monday sent a letter to the Sher-e-Bangla Nagar police station that said the House Committee members “unanimously” agreed that Sujit should not be arrested or harassed.
Police say Sujit was near the chamber of the Awami League MP Kabirul Haque and he ran away as the security personnel raided the office in the hostel adjacent to the parliament building – one of the highly secured areas in Bangladesh.
The Sher-e-Bangladesh Nagar police sent a copy of the letter to the parliament’s security wing. Deputy Serjeant-at-arms Salim Khan received the letter from the police.
The Dhaka Tribune has obtained accessed the letter and got a copy of the meeting of the House Committee tasked to ensure food and accommodation for the MPs. The Rules of Procedure of parliament has not given approval of sending such letter to police.
According to the rules, the police must seek the permission from the speaker in case of arrest of any official of the parliament secretariat.
“I will definitely inquire into it,” Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
Former chief whip and member of the 15-member House Committee Abdus Shahid told the Dhaka Tribune that the speaker or the parliament secretary on her behalf was the authority to decide whether an employee of the parliament would be arrested or not.
“This is not the job of the House Committee to send such letter. We just discussed at the meeting (on August 18) that Sujit should not be arrested or harassed, if he is innocent. But I think we have not taken such decision,” he said.
The 3rd meeting of the House Committee headed by the chief whip discussed the probable arrest of Sujit, an administrative officer in charge of hostel wing of parliament. He executes the order of chief whip ASM Feroz on allocation of rooms and apartments for the MPs and looks after the accommodation facilities.
Police on August 12 arrested fake major Mahmud Hasan who used to maintain offices in parliament and took money from people promising jobs and government contracts.
Sujit’s subordinate Salahuddin Md Amin caught red-handed with the major used to aid the swindler to enter the offices of the MPs while they were outside Dhaka. People used to come to him for lobbying. Salahuddin and the fake major told police that Sujit knew about it.
The minutes of the meeting on August 18 said ASM Feroz raised the issue of arrest of the fake army major strongly suggesting that the parliament’s security wing had been implicating him with an “intention”.
He said the House Committee could take a resolution, asking the police not to arrest or harass him.Abdus Shahid supported him.
Former whip Noor-E-Alam Chowdhury (Liton), a nephew of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, opposed the chief whip saying: “Why should we take a resolution of this nature? Is this the work of the House Committee? This is up to the speaker’s discretion.”
Only three MPs talked on this issue. Other attending members Tajul Islam Chowdhury, Sagufta Yasmin, Panchanan Biswas and Fazle Hossain Badsha did not talk about Sujit’s arrest, said the minutes.
But the letter sent to the police reads that the House Committee members unanimously agreed in favour of Sujit.
The minutes will go to the next meeting of the House Committee for approval. In case of objection from any of the members, the minutes could be changed.
The date of the next meeting is yet to be fixed.
