Staff Reporter :
The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Sunday stayed for four weeks a High Court order that suspended seven police personnel of Bakerganj Police Station of Barishal district and the Probation Officer of Social Welfare Department of Bakerganj for sending four children to the development centre in connection with a rape case.
On October 7 last year, Bakerganj police arrested the four children and produced them in the court of Barishal’s Senior Judicial Magistrate Md Enayet Ullah the same day. The magistrate rejected their bail petitions and ordered police to send them to the development centre. The children were taken to a development centre at Pulerhat in Jashore.
In a suo muto (voluntary) move, the HC Bench of Justice Md Mozibur Rahman Miah and Justice Md Kamrul Hossain Mollah on June 13 this year ordered the law secretary to immediately withdraw the criminal jurisdiction of Senior Judicial Magistrate Enayet Ullah for ordering to send the minors to the custody of child development centre without granting them bail.
The HC observed that the ignorance of Enayet Ullah about the Children Act, 2013 in dealing with the case against the four children
is unpardonable, and the unconditional apology offered by him to this court is unacceptable, as he sent the children to the custody although he had no jurisdiction to do so.
The Bench struck down the rape case filed by the police against the four children saying that the police have filed the case in violation of their fundamental rights and relevant law.
Following an appeal filed by two police officials, the Chamber Judge of the Appellate Division Justice Obaidul Hassan stayed the HC order for four weeks.
The Chamber court also sent the matter to the full Bench of the apex court and fixed August 1 for hearing on the matter in the Appellate Division.
Advocate Mamtaz Uddin Fakir and Advocate Noman Hossain Talukder appeared in the court on behalf of the petitioners. Barrister Abdul Halim and Advocate Jamiul Hoque Faisal also took part in the hearing on behalf of Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST), an organisation that are providing legal aid to the children.
The case was filed with the Bakerganj Police Station on October 6 last year against four children on charge of raping a 6-year old girl. Police arrested the children on the same day.
