Police produced the 19-year old Canadian girl before the High Court on Sunday. The girl had allegedly been confined for 10 months in her parents’ house at North Mugda in Dhaka. Her parents also appeared before the High Court.
Members of Mugda Police Station produced them before the higher court.
Earlier on April 5, the HC bench asked the police to produce the Canadian girl along with her parents before the court on April 10.
The higher court had issued the order following a writ petition. The HC bench of Justice Farah Mahbub and Justice SM Moniruzzaman heard the writ petition and also issued a rule asking the DMP commissioner, Mugda OC and the girl’s parents to explain why it would not be declared illegal to detain a 19-year-old girl for 10 months without her consent.
Two rights organisations -- Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST) and Ain O Salis Kendra (ASK) -- filed the writ petition. Advocate ZI Khan Panna, Barrister Sara Hossain, Shahinuzzaman and Aysha Siddqua moved for the writ petition, while Deputy Attorney General Samarendra Nath Biswas represented the state. A representative of the Canadian High Commission was also present in the High Court.
A lawyer said that the HC bench would issue order in this regard on April 12.
According to the writ petition, the 19-year-old girl was born in Canada. She is a Canadian citizen by birth. She studies at a university in Canada. Her parents used to live in Canada. They came to Bangladesh along with the girl, who is a Bangladeshi descent, 10 months ago. They told their girl that they were going to visit Bangladesh for some days. But afterwards her parents did not want to send her abroad anymore. The young woman then tried to return to Canada but she was not allowed to do so. In the circumstances, she sought help from the Canadian High Commission.
It was alleged in the writ petition that the girl’s mobile phone was snatched from her and her grandmother and mother kept her confined in the house all the time. At one point, the young woman told the Canadian government and the Canadian High Commission in Dhaka on landline that she had been forcibly kept confined in the house. The young woman expressed her desire to return to Canada.
Later, the Canadian High Commission in Dhaka filed a general diary with Mugda Police Station on February 9.
