Staff Reporter :
The High Court on Wednesday ordered the government to immediately release the children under 12 years convicted by the mobile courts and kept in the Children Development Centres in Jashore and Tongi.
The court also granted bail for six months to children aged between 12 and 18 years who were convicted by the mobile courts. They will be released subject to satisfaction of the children’s court concerned, the court said.
At the same time, the court asked the authorities concerned to make separate files about the cases against the children convicted by mobile courts and kept those files in the Children Development Centres.
The files should be sent to the High Court within seven working days, the court said.
The HC Bench of Justice Sheikh Hassan Arif and Justice Md Mahmud Hassan Talukder passed the order and issued a rule on a Suo Moto (voluntary) move following a report published in a Bengali daily on Thursday (Yesterday).
In the rule, the court wanted to know from the concerned authorities of the government as to why the conviction of the children by the mobile courts should not be declared illegal.
According to the report, mobile courts of RAB have jailed 121 children from six months to one year between May 3 and August 10 this year and they have been kept in the Children Development Centres in Jashore and Tongi.
Among them, 28 are 17 years old, 26 are 16 years, 20 are 15 years, 16 are 14 years and 11 are 12 years, 7 are 13 years, 12 are in between 8 and 11 and one convict’s age has not been mentioned.
Barrister Md Abdul Halim and Advocate Ishrat Hasan placed the newspaper report before the High Court Bench for necessary orders.
Secretaries of Home, Law, Public Administration, Social Welfare and women and Children, Director General of RAB, caretakers of children development centres in Jashore and Tongi, Director General of Department of Social Services, Executive Magistrate Md Akhteruzzaman of RAB Headquarters and other respondents have to comply with the rule.
