The High Court on Monday asked the commissioner of Dhaka's Metropolitan Police, Benazir Ahmed, to bring opposition chief whip Zainul Abdin Farroque to the court this morning as the police had reportedly stopped him from coming to the court to seek bail in a case lodged on charge of assaulting the police.
The bench of Justice Nozrul Islam Chowdhury and Justice Anwarul Haque passed the order after Farroque's lawyer Moudud Ahmed told the court that the police had kept Farroque confined in a private hospital when he was supposed to appear in the court which was scheduled to hear his plea for bail.
The same bench told Moudud Ahmed that it would hear Farroque's plea for bail in connection with a case that the police had filed against him on charge of obstructing the police from discharging their duty on July 6 during the 2-day hartal called by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its allies.
Deputy attorney general Mohammad Ullah Kislu told New Age, 'I informed the DMP commissioner of the court's order as per its directive, and he told me that he would comply with the order.'
Moudud told reporters that he had filed a petition for Farroque's bail at about 2:30pm and the court had told him that the matter would be heard at about 4:00pm. Farroque was asked to come to the court from the hospital where he was admitted after being brutally beaten up by the police.
But the police stopped Farroque from appearing at the court for the bail hearing, he added.
On July 6, the very day that Farroque became the victim of police brutality, sub-inspector Nazmul Kabir lodged a case with the Sher-e-Bangla Nagar thana, accusing Farroque, BNP lawmaker Syeda Asifa Ashrafi Papia and some unnamed people of assaulting the policemen and obstructing them from performing their duty. The same thana refused to entertain ABM Ashrafuddin Nizan and other BNP stalwarts who went there to lodge a case against the concerned police officials.
On July 10, Nizan filed a case with a Dhaka court, accusing Dhaka Metropolitan Police's additional deputy commissioner Harun-or-Rashad, assistant commissioner Biplob Sarkar and some 25 to 30 unnamed policemen of attempting to kill Farroque.
After hearing the BNP's case, metropolitan magistrate AK Azad asked the DMP commissioner to investigate the incident and submit the report to the court by August 10.
The police case filed against Farroque and others is now being 'investigated' by the Detective Branch.
Source : New Age
