A TWO-member High Court Bench has rejected a police probe report and ordered Wednesday a judicial inquiry into the public humiliation of Narayanganj school teacher Shyamal Kanti Bhakta in the second week of May. In a suo moto rule the Court directed the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) in Dhaka on Monday last to conduct a fresh inquiry to find out the offence committed in its entirety and identify the real perpetrators. The police report submitted recently found none was responsible for the humiliation although media report showed the squatting of the teacher in presence of local Jitiya Party lawmaker AKM Salim Osman under severe duress. The Court has asked the CMM to submit fresh enquiry report before it on November 3 so that hearing can be held on November 6 for passing further order on this case.
The HC Bench insisted while taking up the suo moto matter that the Senior Judicial Magistrate in Narayanganj accepted the police report on August 3 on public humiliation of Shyamal Kanti Bhakta without properly applying judicial mind. They dismissed the report submitted by police as ‘incomplete, inconclusive and highly deplorable. They held the view that the investigation officer has failed to identify the perpetrators who compelled Shyamal to squat in an open space.
In fact the incident went viral immediately in a video clip in social media showing how the headmaster of Piyar Sattar Latif High School was humiliated holding his ears in presence of lawmaker Salim Osman of Jatiya Party. The HC Bench said people across the country saw the incident through electronic and print media. The judges cannot remain oblivious to such an incident. None is above the law. Everybody is subject to the law. It is the essence of rule of law.
The action taken by a High Court Bench of Bangladesh Supreme Court has definitely come at a time when police are subjected to easy political control and police reports not often trustworthy. Yet the courts, especially the lower courts accept police report without question knowing most of such reports are politically tainted. The justice system is thus badly impaired.
We must express the hope the HC order will enhance the confidence of people in the higher judiciary. In Bangladesh we find so much lies and cowardice in upholding the cause of the people by public servants which did not occur in this part during Pakistan days.
Some judges show courage and not all of them. The lawyers are the real source of courage for the judiciary but they are mostly political activists for personal gains and not judicial activists for the rule of law. The country is in a big crisis of failing justice system.
The police report in question submitted at the direction of a court is also far from the truth. The police found none to be blame for the public humiliation of a teacher because a political leader has to be saved.
We expect as law enforcers police must behave like police of a free country. If police do not have the courage to be law enforcers then we shall be engulfed in anarchy – with police no exception.
Some brave judges are and only hope to save the Constitution and the rule of law. We cannot be unfit for independence and freedom.
