The High Court has issued several directives to the authorities concerned in order to stop fake arrest warrant against innocent people.
The virtual HC bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Md Mostafizur Rahman issued the directives on Monday following a writ petition filed by Ekramul Ahsan Kanchan, a resident of Shantinagar in the capital, to find out the plaintiffs of 49 ‘fake cases’ filed against him.
In response to the writ petition, the higher court has given the directive that the names, designations and official phone numbers of judge or magistrate, who issues arrest warrant against the accused in any case, must be mentioned in the order copy of arrest warrant so that the accused or his lawyer can communicate with the court staff to verify the authenticity of the order.
The court said that the police officers concerned, responsible for executing the arrest warrant, would communicate with the court staff preparing the arrest warrants over their cellphones in order to become sure about the authenticity of the order. In the directives, the HC bench also said that the police officers will produce the accused along with the order of arrest warrant before the court.
The HC bench has also given the directive that plaintiff or complainant must submit photocopies of their national identity card (NID) while filing any case with a police station or court against someone from now on.
At the same time, the High Court also directed the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of Police to find out the plaintiffs of the 49 ‘fake cases’. The CID has been asked to enquire into the 49 ‘criminal cases’ and submit the investigation report to the High Court in 60 days.
The court also issued a rule asking the authorities concerned to explain why they should not be directed to find the informants and complainants of the cases filed against Ekramul Ahsan Kanchan.
Secretary of Home Ministry, Inspector General of Police (IGP), Additional IGP (SB), Additional IGP (CID), Director General of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) and some others were made respondents to the rule.
Senior lawyers of Supreme Court Advocate Zainul Abedin and Advocate Emadul Haque Basir appeared before the court for the writ petition, while Deputy Attorney General Bipul Bagmar represented the state.
Advocate Zainul Abedin told media that the ‘49 criminal cases’ have been filed with different police stations and courts in Dhaka and many other parts of the country against their client Ekramul Ahsan Kanchan on various charges including murder, rape, torture of women, extortion and human trafficking in last 11 years.
Ekramul Ahsan Kanchan has been acquitted and exempted of 36 cases and proceedings of the rest are running, they said, adding that businessman has suffered in jail in connection with 40 of the fake cases.
In his reaction, Ekramul Ahsan Kanchan said that a group has filed the ‘fake cases’ against him in 13 districts in order to grab his land, house and factory. “I don’t know the complainants and informants by face. I want justice,” he said.
Earlier on March 15 this year, a special report under the headline ‘Fake arrest warrants alleged’ was published on daily Bangladesh Post where it was said that ‘many innocent people land in jail because of fake arrest-warrant.’ Mentioning some case studies, in the news item it was said that ‘some law enforcers, court employees, lawyers’ assistants are in an unholy nexus and involved in producing fake warrants for personal vendetta or in exchange of money.’