�Police torture� on BB official
SC stays HC order
The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court yesterday stayed a High Court order that had directed the officer-in-charge of Mohammadpur Police Station to accept the complaint of Bangladesh Bank official Golam Rabbi, who was allegedly tortured by a policeman, as the first information report (FIR).
In response to a government petition, the chamber judge of the Appellate Division Justice Hasan Foyez Siddique stayed the HC order until January 25 and sent the matter before the full bench of the apex court for hearing.
On Jan 18, in response to a writ, the HC ordered police to accept the complaint of the tortured bank official as the FIR.
A High Court bench of Justice Syed Muhammad Dastagir Husain and Justice AKM Shahidul Huq passed the order upon hearing on a petition filed by two lawyers and a journalist.
The HC also issued a rule asking to explain why the police torture on Rabbi should not be declared illegal and
unconstitutional. Secretaries of Home Ministry, Law Ministry, Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner, deputy commissioner of Tejgoan Zone, officer-in-charge Mohammadpur Police Station and sub-inspector Masud Shikder and Human Rights Commission were made respondents to the rule.
Earlier on January 17, Supreme Court lawyers Barrister Ehsanur Rahman, Advocate Julfikar Ali Junu and Jahid Hasan, a journalist of Radio Dhoni 91.2 FM, filed a writ with the High Court seeking a judicial inquiry into alleged torture on Rabbi.
On January 9, Golam Rabbi, 28, an assistant director of Bangladesh Bank, was allegedly tortured by Mohammadpur police sub-inspector Masud Shikder and some other policemen in a police vehicle as they demanded a bribe of Tk 5 lakh and threatened him with death. The incident went viral on social media, triggering a huge outcry. Rabbi then lodged a complaint with Mohammad Police Station. On Saturday, sub-inspector Masud Shikder was suspended as a probe body found his involvement in the inident, after a preliminary investigation.
