Editorial Desk :
Media report in a national daily on Friday said that the provision of recording confessional statement of the accused is being misused in most cases as they are making false confession after allegedly being subjected to torture in police custody to divert the course of investigations. Easy use of police remand and violation of Supreme Court guidelines are disobeyed by learned magistrates.
We have been pointing out the police remand is abused making serious police investigation system redundant. Abuse of justice has become common. The court’s attitude not to grant bail has made it easier to get away with abuse of police power. Lawyer’s presence duration interrogation is a requirement constitutionally endorsed. Forced confession obtained in lonely and dark atmosphere of fear and torture must be abandoned. The courts know torture is used in police custody. A large number of accused in police custody lost lives is known to the courts.
The higher courts had to grapple to do justice.
Notwithstanding this inhuman record our police, for whatever reason, our courts accept police vision as truth only truth. The accused is totally helpless. He has no right and no protection. An FIR and police remand ensure for the accused imprisonment. He will not be granted bail which is judicial custody. He will be sent for imprisonment. Thus he is shut up till he is produce in court for trial after years later. The prosecution feels no urgency to open up trial. The courts are blamed for delays.
As reported, the Appellate Division on Thursday warned a judge of Dhaka chief metropolitan magistrates’ court for non-compliance of the court’s directives and the law required to be followed at the time of recording confessional statements while the judge apologised in court for the breach. The court observed that the confessional statements have now become questionable, though we often consider them as true as the accused were supposed to give such statements voluntarily.
Earlier, the magistrate was asked to appear before the Appellate Division after flaws were detected in recording confessional statements before the additional judicial magistrate court in Alauddin Antor murder case in Faridpur in June 2018. The flaws surfaced while the High Court was hearing the bail prayers of two accused in the case, now under Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal for trial.
The latest incident of police-induced false confessional statement surfaced after Narayanganj Sadar Police Station’s suspended sub-inspector Shamim Al Mamun, the investigation officer in an abduction case, declared a girl ‘murdered’ referring to the false confessional statements of the three detained accused, though she returned after 51 days of her kidnapping on July 4 alive.
Again the return of the three ‘murdered persons’-two in Narayanganj and another in Chattogram-also put a big question mark on the process of remand and recording of the confessional statement.
There are allegations of blatant abuse of the judicial system by police personnel with the help of lower courts. Unless the magistrates are obliging the police cannot make remand order.
According to legal experts, in most cases investigators demand remand in custody so that they can compel the accused to give false confessions to their alleged crimes through torture, instead of collecting evidence through proper investigations. But a case cannot be probed on the basis of a confessional statement unless other evidence, which need to be gathered by the investigators, corroborate it.
However, the police can demand remand in serious cases where eye-witnesses are not available and the case is also clueless.
The most saddened thing is that nowadays some police officials have become dangerous criminals with no respect for life and law. It is the duty of the judges to deliver speedy justice; though it is absent in our judicial system.
We are that press and public opinion are against bail. In the first place responsible is rare now as most of them being party activists in search of government favour. We have no political leaders but deal makers. To them fair justice system is their enemy. We shall insist again and again judicial system must be made a justice system by the judiciary. The judges cannot blind to political pressure on police and corruption among police. Public opinion has to be created by the judiciary itself that the accused freedom to be on bail matters for fair justice and police version is not the whole truth. The judiciary has to think seriously how to ensure justice at the lowest level so that every accused does not feel to get justice he has to come to Supreme Court.
Media report in a national daily on Friday said that the provision of recording confessional statement of the accused is being misused in most cases as they are making false confession after allegedly being subjected to torture in police custody to divert the course of investigations. Easy use of police remand and violation of Supreme Court guidelines are disobeyed by learned magistrates.
We have been pointing out the police remand is abused making serious police investigation system redundant. Abuse of justice has become common. The court’s attitude not to grant bail has made it easier to get away with abuse of police power. Lawyer’s presence duration interrogation is a requirement constitutionally endorsed. Forced confession obtained in lonely and dark atmosphere of fear and torture must be abandoned. The courts know torture is used in police custody. A large number of accused in police custody lost lives is known to the courts.
The higher courts had to grapple to do justice.
Notwithstanding this inhuman record our police, for whatever reason, our courts accept police vision as truth only truth. The accused is totally helpless. He has no right and no protection. An FIR and police remand ensure for the accused imprisonment. He will not be granted bail which is judicial custody. He will be sent for imprisonment. Thus he is shut up till he is produce in court for trial after years later. The prosecution feels no urgency to open up trial. The courts are blamed for delays.
As reported, the Appellate Division on Thursday warned a judge of Dhaka chief metropolitan magistrates’ court for non-compliance of the court’s directives and the law required to be followed at the time of recording confessional statements while the judge apologised in court for the breach. The court observed that the confessional statements have now become questionable, though we often consider them as true as the accused were supposed to give such statements voluntarily.
Earlier, the magistrate was asked to appear before the Appellate Division after flaws were detected in recording confessional statements before the additional judicial magistrate court in Alauddin Antor murder case in Faridpur in June 2018. The flaws surfaced while the High Court was hearing the bail prayers of two accused in the case, now under Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal for trial.
The latest incident of police-induced false confessional statement surfaced after Narayanganj Sadar Police Station’s suspended sub-inspector Shamim Al Mamun, the investigation officer in an abduction case, declared a girl ‘murdered’ referring to the false confessional statements of the three detained accused, though she returned after 51 days of her kidnapping on July 4 alive.
Again the return of the three ‘murdered persons’-two in Narayanganj and another in Chattogram-also put a big question mark on the process of remand and recording of the confessional statement.
There are allegations of blatant abuse of the judicial system by police personnel with the help of lower courts. Unless the magistrates are obliging the police cannot make remand order.
According to legal experts, in most cases investigators demand remand in custody so that they can compel the accused to give false confessions to their alleged crimes through torture, instead of collecting evidence through proper investigations. But a case cannot be probed on the basis of a confessional statement unless other evidence, which need to be gathered by the investigators, corroborate it.
However, the police can demand remand in serious cases where eye-witnesses are not available and the case is also clueless.
The most saddened thing is that nowadays some police officials have become dangerous criminals with no respect for life and law. It is the duty of the judges to deliver speedy justice; though it is absent in our judicial system.
We are that press and public opinion are against bail. In the first place responsible is rare now as most of them being party activists in search of government favour. We have no political leaders but deal makers. To them fair justice system is their enemy. We shall insist again and again judicial system must be made a justice system by the judiciary. The judges cannot blind to political pressure on police and corruption among police. Public opinion has to be created by the judiciary itself that the accused freedom to be on bail matters for fair justice and police version is not the whole truth. The judiciary has to think seriously how to ensure justice at the lowest level so that every accused does not feel to get justice he has to come to Supreme Court.
