Staff Reporter :
Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain on Tuesday observed that a society couldn’t be saved from crime by giving punishment only to the accused.
It was his observation while holding hearing on an appeal petition filed by an accused, Jashim Rari of Barishal’s Mehendiganj upazila, against the death sentence given to him in a case filed on charge of killing his four-year old child in 2007.
After concluding the hearing, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court commuted the death sentence of Jashim Rari to 10 years’ imprisonment in the case.
The apex court also ordered the jail authorities to immediately release Jashim from jail if he was not arrested in any other case as he had been in jail from 2007.
But in one stage of the hearing, the chief justice said also that court must give death penalty where the offence demands. Defence lawyer Helal Uddin Mollah took part in the hearing on behalf of Jashim, while Deputy Attorney General (DAG) Bishwajit Debnath represented the state.
During the hearing DAG Bishwajit Debnath was placing some decisions and observations of the Supreme Courts of Bangladesh and India before the apex court bench headed by Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain. At one point of the hearing, the Chief Justice said, “Jail or death sentence alone cannot save a society from crimes. Our law and order situation is not inferior to the law and order situation in India.”
The Chief Justice says, “Husbands are being awarded punishment on average in 80 percent of house wife killing cases. But is this punishment reducing the incidence of wife killing in our society? So it is a misconception if we punish the accused, then we will continue to float in milk.”
Lawyer Helal Uddin Mollah said the apex court commuted the death sentence, considering his arguments that Jashim killed his son Shamim out of anger after his mother-in-law had beaten him with a broom following an altercation. It was not a planned murder, he said.
According to case statement, Jashim and his mother-in-law got into an altercation over dowry when he went to his in-laws’ house in Mehendiganj upazila to see his wife Fatema Begum and four-year-old son Shamim on March 31, 2007.
After the incident, Shamim went missing. Later, Jashim confessed that he strangled his son. Shamim’s mother lodged a murder case with Mehendiganj Police Station on April 02. Jashim gave a confessional statement to a magistrate under Section 164.
Barishal District and Sessions Judge Court on July 28, 2008 awarded death sentence to Jashim in the murder case. On November 14, 2013, the High Court confirmed the death sentence given to Jashim in the case.
Jashim then filed a jail appeal in the same year and after hearing the appeal the apex court commuted his death sentence to 10 years’ imprisonment.
