The High Court has ordered the arrest of three Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) officers, suspended over the multiple murders in Narayanganj. The bench of justices Mirza Hussain Haider and Muhammad Khurshid Alam Sarkar issued the order on Sunday while a hearing a petition seeking the formation of a judicial commission for investigating the crime. The officers are former Lt Col Tarek Syeed Mohammad and Maj Arif Hossain and navy officer Lt Commander MM Rana. Seven men, including Narayanganj City Councillor Nazrul Islam and senior lawyer Chandan Kumar Sarkar, were abducted from the city on Apr 27. Their bodies were found floating in the Shitalakhyya River several days later. Mohammad, RAB-11 commander at that time, and the other two were removed from RAB and sent to their parent forces. They were forced to retire on May 7, three days after Nazrul’s father-in-law claimed they took Tk 60 million in bribes from local Awami League leader Nur Hossain to carry out the murders. The court said the trio should be arrested under Section 54 even if no charges were found sticking against them under the penal code or other Acts. Former Lt Col Mohammad is the son-in-law of Disaster Management and Relief Minister Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya. The minister on Friday sought to defend his son-in-law saying none of his family members were involved in the crime even when investigations were on-going. Besides ordering the arrest, the court on Sunday also issued two rules. One rule asked why necessary steps will not be taken to amend the charter of duties of law-enforcing agencies like police and RAB. The other asked why necessary steps will not be taken for overcoming the human rights deficit of citizens through appropriate legal means. The home secretary, law secretary, public administration secretary and chairman of National Human Rights Commission have been asked to reply to these two rules within two weeks. Justice Khurshid Alam Sarkar observed that another High Court bench had issued an order on the matter. The bench would have ordered the RAB officers’ arrest if they were suspended then. “They would not have been suspended if there was no evidence,” he said. “That’s why we are passing a fresh order for their arrest.” Dr Bijoy Kumar Pal, son-in-law of the murdered lawyer Chandan Sarkar, Narayanganj Lawyers Forum chairman Shakawat Hossain and Mahbubur Rahman, executive president of local organisation “Amra Narayanganjbashi” filed the writ petition on Sunday. The court said the petition will be heard alongside a previous suo moto order issued by another bench and forwarded the matter to that bench. — bdnews24.com
