News Desk :
Law Minister Anisul Huq said that a letter will be sent to Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain to grab the judicial power from a lower court judge for her observation that rape cases should not be accepted 72 hours after the incidents.
He was talking to journalists at a meeting organised in memory of senior advocate Abdul Baset Mazumder at Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) auditorium premises in the capital on Saturday.
When his attention was drawn to judge Mosammat Kamrunnahar’s observations on rape, Anisul Huq said the lower court judge’s suggestion to police not to register cases after 72 hours of rape incidents was “totally unlawful and unconstitutional”. “She has no right to make such observations.”
“A letter will be sent to the Chief Justice on Sunday to take away the judicial power of the judge concerned [Mosammat Kamrunnahar],” Anisul Huq also said.
While delivering her observations in the much-talked about Banani Raintree Hotel rape case on Thursday (November 13 last), judge Mosammat Kamrunnahar of the 7th Tribunal for Prevention of Women and Children Repression, Dhaka advised police to refrain from accepting cases if rape victims go to the police stations after 72 hours of the rape incident.
“Semen cannot be traced after 72 hours,” Judge Kamrunnahar also reminded police.
She also acquitted all the five accused, including Shafat Ahmed, son of Apan Jewellers owner, from the charges of the case filed by two private university students with Banani Police Station.
The two female students filed the case 38 days after they were allegedly repeatedly raped at a room at Raintree Hotel at Banani in Dhaka.
