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the hearing began, and the former chief justice remained silent in the dock.

There was no lawyer to represent him.

A group of pro-BNP lawyers, meanwhile, staged demonstrations, demanding his trial.

On July 6, Ala Uddin, 61, a BNP leader in Noakhali, filed the case in connection with killing of 16-year-old Kaiyum with Jatrabari Police Station, accusing ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina, justice Khairul, and 465 others.

Besides, 1,000 to 2,000 unnamed Awami League activists and 100 to 150 law enforcers were also accused in the case.

At house in Dhanmondi yesterday morning, the Detective Branch of police arrested Justice Khairul, who has been widely criticised for abolishing the nonparty caretaker government system through a landmark but divisive Supreme Court verdict in 2011.

The sudden detention of the former top judge has sparked fierce political and legal debate.

Pro-BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami lawyers accuse him of destroying a vital democratic mechanism and enabling long-term political control through his controversial interpretation of the constitution.

“He committed a fraud upon the judiciary and democracy,” said AM Mahbub Uddin Khokon, BNP leader and president of the Supreme Court Bar Association.

“Receiving Tk 39 lakh from the prime minister’s relief fund for treatment and signing the final judgment on the case of 13th amendment of the constitution 16 months after retirement is unprecedented and unacceptable,” he said while talking to The Daily Star at the SC premises.

Zainul Abedin, convener of Bangladesh Jatiotabadi Ainjibi Forum, a body of pro-BNP lawyers, told reporters that the “Aynaghar (the secret detention centres) was built because of the former chief justice.

“By destroying democracy, he opened the way for the killings of thousands of people. Therefore, his trial must be held in the people’s court. It must be in the open court.”

The lawyer said, “Khairul Haque threw BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia out of Shaheed Zia’s cantonment house through a verdict. He set a precedent of judicial dishonesty. Justice Khairul Haque grabbed the post of the Law Commission chairman in exchange for the verdict scrapping the caretaker government system. Khairul Haque should be tried in such a way that other judges will be careful after seeing it.”

Kayser Kamal, secretary general of BJAF, called for exemplary punishment, alleging that Justice Khairul’s actions destroyed public confidence in the judiciary.

Talking to this newspaper, Mohammad Shishir Manir, a pro-Jamaat lawyer, said the former chief justice committed “fraud upon the judicial process”.

“He changed the short order of the 13th Amendment judgment and thereby violated the code of conduct of the judges of the Supreme Court. He also violated the oath of the judges incorporated in the constitution. He should be suitably punished.

“If in the short order it was stated that the next two general elections may be held under the caretaker government, then removing that portion from the long judgment constitutes judicial misconduct.”

Justice Khairul, who served as the 19th chief justice from September 2010 to May 2011, delivered several high-profile judgments.

Allegations against the former chief justice extend beyond judicial conduct.

The Anti-Corruption Commission has launched an inquiry into the allegations that he received a plot from Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) in breach of existing rules, with alleged assistance from government officials.

Justice Khairul also faced criticism for administering oaths to High Court judges in disputed circumstances, and for ordering the eviction of BNP chief Khaleda from her cantonment residence.

Justice Khairul, who was appointed Law Commission chairman in 2013 by the Awami League government, resigned from the commission on August 13 last year.

Justice Khairul upheld a lower court verdict that had sentenced 15 accused killers of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his family members.

An HC division bench led by him ruled that it was Bangabandhu who had at first declared the independence of the republic on March 26, 1971.

The bench of Justice Khairul delivered verdicts declaring the 5th amendment to the constitution illegal.

The fifth amendment had legitimised the takeover of state power by Khandker Mushtaque Ahmed, Abu Sadaat Mohammad Sayem, and Major General Ziaur Rahman from August 15, 1975, to April 9, 1979.