Staff Reporter :
A total of 26,695 cases have been filed for the incidents of rape across the country in last five years, said a report submitted in the High Court.
The office of Inspector General of Police (IGP) on Wednesday submitted the report in the court complying with its earlier order.
Among the cases, 4331 were filed in 2016; 4683 were lodged in 2017; 4695 were filed in 2018; 6766 were filed in 2019 and 6220 were lodged till October in 2020, according to the short report signed by additional deputy inspector general of police Md Rezaul Karim.
Deputy Attorney General (DAG) Nawroz Mohammad Russel Chowdhury placed the report on behalf of the IGP office before the HC during hearing a writ petition in line with its October 21 last year order.
DAG Nawroz also sought two months time for submitting a complete report on this issue.
The bench of Justice Md Mozibur Rahman Miah and Justice Md Kamrul Hossain Mollah fixed May 23 for further hearing on the issue.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court registrar general yesterday placed another report to the HC bench through DAG Nawroz saying that a three-member monitoring cell has been formed to monitor whether the trials of cases filed under the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act, 2000 are completed in 180 days.
SC registrar general Md Ali Akbar is the head of the committee and two other representatives
included in the committee from the ministries of home and law.
The monitoring cell has been constituted in line with a verdict delivered by the HC on December 5, 2016.
The HC directive came in the full text of a verdict delivered by the HC bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice JBM Hassan. The full text was released on May 12, 2017.
During hearing yesterday, the HC bench led by Justice Mozibur Rahman Miah questioned some orders delivered by another HC bench issuing condition that the accused of rape cases will be granted bail if they marry their victims in jails as they had love affairs in the past.
HC bench headed by Justice Mozibur Rahman Miah said rape is not a compoundable offence. How will the law cover if any convict or accused of a rape case is granted bail on condition of marrying the victim, the bench questioned.
Writ petitioner’s lawyers Aneek R Haque and Yeadia Zaman told the HC that the rape is a non-compoundable criminal offence and it cannot be settled through a salish or out of court.
Following the same petition filed by Ain O Salish Kendra (ASK), a leading rights organization, the HC bench led by Justice Mozibur Rahman Miah on October 21 last year directed law enforcers to take necessary steps to stop the use of salish in adjudicating rape incidents in the country.
The salish or village panchayat has acted for many years as a traditional judicial mechanism, operating mostly in rural parts of Bangladesh.
The court also ordered the authorities concerned of the government to submit a report before this court in three months on the number of rape cases sent to tribunals for trial in the last five years.
The report must state what steps have been taken to ensure completion of trial proceedings of rape cases in 180 days in line with the court’s earlier directives.
The HC also issued a rule asking the authorities to explain in four weeks as to why holding of ‘salish’ to deal with rape incidents should not be declared a criminal offence.
