Arrested ones in criminal cases must not get bails easily
Getting of bails in some
serious criminal cases has become rather easy in the backdrop of insufficient police reports and little existing incentives for public prosecutors to do their jobs enthusiastically
The country is now facing a serious threat from militant and terrorist elements that can unsettle its social fabric anytime. Against this backdrop, it is necessary to check crimes related to militancy and terrorism very strongly and the countrys courts as well as the law enforcing agencies should act accordingly considering the seriousness of the crimes committed. This is exactly what Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina recently said when she urged the judiciary to weigh the seriousness of a crime while giving bail to a criminal. The prime minister also urged the lawyers not to fight cases in favour of crimes related to militancy and terrorism. True, it is up to a lawyers discretion to choose a case we believe there should be a morality check in this regard.
While it must be pointed out that police forces take immense pain in arresting criminals from their hideouts, they also often do not submit their investigation reports on criminal cases to the courts seriously. There is another problem also. The public prosecutors often do not get enough incentives to fight against a criminal on behalf of the government. Recently a news from Comilla pointed out that the daily honorarium fee of a public prosecutor is maximum taka 250 for standing in the court.
It is to be noted here because of this paltry amount of honorarium, compared to what privately engaged lawyers usually get from their clients, a public prosecutor may lose the zeal to fight a criminal case in governments favour. That is why it is necessary to address this problem if the government wants quality service from its prosecutors.
There are other problems too. Some time ago we noticed to our utter surprise that more than a hundred criminals were about to be freed from jail by producing fake papers of bail from a Dhaka court. This also does not bode well for our judiciary against which there are many complaints. In that case of corruption, the signature of the justice was copied in the fake papers of bail. The judiciary, therefore, has to become very cautious about the corrupt elements within it.
