The High Court (HC) Division has decided to file a criminal case against nine HC officials for their involvement in forging a bail order that facilitated the release of two suspected drug peddlers from the jail custody in Chattogram in April. After finding the probe report, the HC bench of Justice Sheikh Abdul Awal and Justice Bhishmadev Chakrabortty on July 19 ordered the registrar of the HC Division to file a criminal case against the errant officials. The HC bench also ordered that a criminal case be filed against the two suspected drug peddlers who had been released from jail following the bail forgery incident.

Talking to this correspondent, Supreme Court registrar Dr Md Zakir Hossain said they received the HC order yesterday afternoon. “We're yet to go through the copy of the HC order. We’ll take necessary steps tomorrow in accordance with the court's directive,” he added.

According to the case statement, the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) had arrested Noor and Rasel with 90,000 pieces of yaba pills in Kodomtali under the Doublemooring police station of the port city on August 18, 2016. Since then, they had been in jail.  However, the duo was released after a forged bail order issued on April 8 this year.

On May 30, the HC directed the SC registrar general to investigate the incident after AAG Mohammad Ali Jinnah drew the bench’s attention to the incident.

Although Rasel was arrested after the forgery was detected on May 13, Noor is still absconding.

Later, the HC bench formed a committee and the probe report revealed clear involvement of nine officials, including the HC Division’s criminal miscellaneous section’s ministerial lower subordinate employee Manju Rani Koire, in forging the bail order with support from the section’s superintendents Mujibur Rahman, Rashranjan Mandal and Jamal Uddin, administrative officer Abdul Baset, typist and office assistant Moniruzzaman Moni, draftsman and comparer Mousumi Dev and typist Mujibur Rahman.

In August 2017, the HC Division’s bench officer Rafiqul Islam was suspended after he was found to have forged a bail order in favour of an accused in the jail custody following his arrest with 50,000 pieces of yaba tablets. On May 28 this year, the HC banned a lawyer from appearing in the HC Division for six months for his involvement in forging a bail order that

facilitated the release of two convicts in a rape case.

Dr Zakir Hossain said there had been no progress in the investigations into several forgery cases that were filed with Shahbagh police station since October 2017.