Ashutosh Sarkar

Eighty-one migrant workers were recently arrested under Section 54 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), in violation of the law and Supreme Court directive, as there is no specific allegation against them, some legal experts and rights activists have observed.

Even a writ petition may be moved before the High Court to challenge the legality of their arrest and seek necessary directives on this issue, a lawyer said.

Syed Sayedul Haque Suman, a Supreme Court lawyer, told The Daily Star that the workers, who returned from Vietnam, were arrested on the sole charge of damaging Bangladesh’s image, which is inhuman and violates the law and SC directive.

According to those laws and the directive, a person can be arrested under CrPC’s Section 54 only if there is any specific allegation against them, which is not the case here, he said. “I will move a writ petition before the High Court, challenging the legality of the law enforcers’ action,” he added.

SC lawyer and Ain O Salish Kendra Chairperson ZI Khan Panna told this newspaper that the media should play a vocal role to stop such arrests and make law enforcers aware of relevant laws.

SC lawyer and Dhaka Law Reports Editor Khurshid Alam Khan said if the workers would have committed any offence in Vietnam, they could be tried and punished in that country, not Bangladesh.

Khurshid said according to the Penal Code of Bangladesh, an offender can be tried and punished in Bangladesh if they commit the crime within the country’s territory.

However, eminent lawyer Dr Shahdeen Malik said if any Bangladeshi national commits a serious crime in any other country and then returns to Bangladesh, they can be arrested and tried in Bangladesh.

The 81 workers, who returned to Bangladesh after being exploited in Vietnam for months, were thrown into jail on September 1, whereas the perpetrators either remain scot-free or are facing little action.

They are among the 107 migrants who were deported from the Southeast Asian country on August 18. At the end of their 14-day quarantine, Turag Police Station Sub-Inspector Md Anwarul Islam produced all 107 before a metropolitan magistrate on September 1.