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Ban on Arrest Based on Suspicion, Torture During Remand

HC directives falling on deaf ears

Discussants tell BLAST, EU views-exchange meeting

Staff Correspondent
One of the High Court directives of 2003 barring law enforcers from detaining persons on suspicion and torturing them in the name of remand is not being followed properly, discussants told a views-exchange meetingyesterday afternoon.
They also stressed the need for building awareness among police, magistrates and victims about the HC directives to end custodial torture during remand.
Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST), with European Union, organised the meeting, "Sections 54 and 167 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC): Review on implementation on the High Court directives”, in the capital's Cirdap auditorium.
Another of the directives, comprising 15 points in all, on the government asked for the amendment to Sections 54 and 167 of the CrPC, the former allowing arrest of people on suspicion and the latter allowing interrogation on remand.
Investigation officers have to interrogate an accused in a house made of glass enabling the interior’s complete visibility from outside and allow lawyers and relatives of the accused to stay outside the house during the interrogation, said one of the directives.
Eminent jurist and rights activist Shahdeen Malik said remand was unconstitutional as the country's charter prohibits law enforcers from compelling persons to give statement against oneself.
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It seems that magistrates have become loyal to police since there has been no media report in the last two or three years informing of them rejecting police remand prayers, he said.
Shahdeen Malik said interestingly the war crimes accused benefited from the HC directives as their lawyers have been permitted to remain present at safe homes during interrogations over war crimes cases.
Accused or suspects of other cases did not get such facilities, he said.
Against the backdrop of police allegedly detaining and then killing people in cold blood at the dead of the night, it is not realistic to expect the HC directives to be followed, he said.
Khurshid Alam Khan, a Supreme
Court lawyer and editor of Dhaka Law Reports, a regular publication on the apex court judgments, said it was absolutely impossible to implement the HC directive asking for interrogations in glass houses.
If the system of remand is scrapped, proper investigation of cases will not take place, he added.
Noor Khan Liton, director of Ain o Salish Kendra, a leading rights organisation, said whereabouts of many persons arrested by plainclothes law enforcers were still unknown.
Law enforcers should be kept above politics to get rid of this situation, he added.
Idrisur Rahman, one of the lawyers who moved the public interest litigation based on which the HC had issued the verdict about detention and remand in2003, said the government has not yet taken any step to execute the directives.
Metropolitan Magistrates SM Ashiqur Rahman and Saiful Islam refuted allegations of magistrates not following the HC directives.
They said they permitted investigation officers to interrogate crimes suspects to get information but never permitted torture during remand.
The magistrates always ask the investigation officers to following the HC directives during remand, they said.
Former HC judge Justice Awlad Ali, who is also the vice-chairman of BLAST Trustee Board, presided over the meeting, moderated by BLAST member ZI Khan Panna.
Journalist Abu Sayeed Khan and rights activists Tahmina Rahman, Jyotirmoy Barua andTajul Islam also spoke.