You have made the country a hell : HC Judge tells state lawyer
Staff Reporter :
Addressing the state lawyer a High Court bench on Tuesday commented that they had made the country a hell.
The High Court bench of Justice Md Emdadul Haque Azad passed the comment while holding hearing on the admissibility of the appeal petition filed by rights body ‘Odhikar’s Secretary Adilur Rahman Khan and its Director ASM Nasiruddin Elan in a case, in which they were sentenced two years in jail.
Meanwhile, the High Court bench after hearing granted bail to the Odhikar officials in the case filed under Section 57 of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Act against them.
The HC bench also stayed the fine of Tk 10,000 imposed on each of them by the trial court.
On September 14, a Dhaka Court sentenced two officials of Odhikar to two years imprisonment each in the case.
The court also fined each of them Tk 10,000, in default of which, Adilur and Nasiruddin have to serve one month more in jail.
Judge of the Dhaka Cyber Tribunal, AM JulfikerHayet, delivered the verdict in presence of the two accused.
On September 25, Adilur Rahman Khan and ASM Nasiruddin Elan filed an appeal petition with the High Court against their jail sentence in the case.
They have also submitted a bail petition along with the appeal petition. The petitions came for hearing on Tuesday.
Lawyers AJ Mohammad Ali and Md Ruhul Amin Bhuiyan appeared in the court hearing on behalf of the Odhikar officials, while Deputy Attorney General Rezaul Karim represented the state.
When the matter came for hearing, AJ Mohammad Ali, lawyer of Adilur and Nasiruddin, stood in front of the dais of the court. Deputy Attorney General Rezaul Karim then vehemently opposed the issue and said, “We also have a speech.”
Addressing the Deputy Attorney General, the HC bench then said, “Let their (appellants) lawyers speak first.
Why are you jumping up already?…You have made the country a hell.”
Later AJ Mohammad in his hearing said the trial court had sentenced his clients for two years in jail and fined Tk 10,000 on each of them. The court then asked as to why this sentence was given. Then AJ Mohammad Ali said sentence was given under Section 57 of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Act.
The court then asked if they had placed bail petition in the case.
Then the lawyers replied that they had also filed a bail petition along with the appeal petition.
Deputy Attorney General told the court that there are allegations of circulating false info and rumours against them (Adilur and Nasiruddin).
Then the court told the Deputy Attorney General, “Then why did you give them (Adilur and Nasiruddin) a lesser sentence? Life sentence should have been given, then.
Why did you give two years’ sentence?”
After the hearing, the HC bench admitted the appeal petition filed by Adilur and Nasiruddin. It also stayed the fined imposed on them by the trial court.
The lawyers of Adilur said now there is no legal bar for the release of the Odhikar officials.
Meanwhile, Attorney General AM Amin Uddin made complain to Chief Justice Obaidul Hassan to take action against Justice Md Emdadul Haque Azad who compared the country’s ongoing situation with the hell.
At the same time, the Attorney General said, the judge had violated his oath.
While talking to the reporters at his office on Tuesday, Attorney General said, “The statement of Justice Md Emdadul Haque Azad comparing the country with hell is unconstitutional and indecent.”
“Being a judge of the High Court, he (Md Emdadul Haque Azad) has taken the oath to preserve the Constitution and the law, and must treat everyone equally out of anger and affection. He must not deviate from this commitment. But in the hearing of the case, Justice Md Emdadul Haque Azad broke his oath by defining the country a hell.
This cannot be accepted in any way.
I, as the chief law officer of the state, informed Chief Justice the matter.”
The case against Adilur and Nasiruddin was filed for running “a distorted report” on the May 5-6, 2013 police action on a Hefazat-e-Islam rally in the capital’s Motijheel.
On June 10, 2013, Detective Branch (DB) of police filed a General Diary with the Gulshan Police Station in this connection, which was later converted into a case.
Detectives arrested Adilur at Gulshan on August 10, 2013 shortly after filing the GD complaining that the rights body on its website ran a false report titled “Assembly of Hefazat-e Islam Bangladesh and Human Rights Violation”.
The High Court granted bail to him on October 9 that year in the case.
Detectives on August 11, 2013 raided the Odhikar’s Gulshan office and seized three laptops and two desktop computers, which were used to prepare the list of 61 dead victims.
After probing the case, the DB on September 4 the same year pressed charges against Adilur and Nasiruddin.
Odhikar’s report claimed that 61 people died in the wee hours of May 6 when the law enforcers flushed several thousand Hefazat activists out of the Shapla Chattar in the capital’s Motijheel.
The government, however, put the number of deaths at 13.
The Cyber Tribunal took into cognizance the charges against Adilur and Nasiruddin on September 12 in 2013.
The tribunal framed charge against them on January 8 in 2014.
Later the High Court stayed the proceedings of the case.
The proceedings of the case resumed on September 5 in 2021 after the HC lifted its stay order.
