Staff Reporter :
The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Sunday cleared the way for a lower court concerned to continue trial proceedings against former Deputy Commissioner of Kurigram Sultana Pervin, three executive magistrates, and several Ansar members in a case filed for assaulting journalist Ariful Islam Regan in March last year.
The three executive magistrates are Senior Assistant Commissioner Nazim Uddin, and assistant commissioners Rintu Bikash Chakma and SM Rahatul Islam. All of them were suspended.
The apex court also dismissed a leave to appeal petition filed by Nazim Uddin, executive magistrate and an accused of the case, challenging the trial proceedings of the case.
In the petition, Nazim Uddin sought stay on the trial proceedings of the case against him saying that departmental proceedings have already been initiated against him and he was not involved in assaulting journalist Ariful Islam.
A three-member bench of the Appellate Division of the SC headed by Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain passed the dismissal order after hearing the petition.
Ishrat Hasan, lawyer of Ariful, a Kurigram correspondent of Bangla Tribune and Dhaka Tribune, told that the High Court on March 23 last year directed police to immediately record Kurigram journalist Ariful Islam’s assault and attempted murder case against the then DC Sultana Pervin, three of her colleagues, and the Ansar personnel concerned.
The then DC and the three assistant commissioners, who were suspended, are fugitives in the eye of law as they are yet to surrender to the trial court in connection with the case, the lawyer said.
In the early hours of March 14 last year, a mobile court of Kurigram district administration, led by three assistant commissioners, allegedly following DC Sultana’s directives sentenced Ariful to one-year imprisonment after his arrest from his home on charges of possessing narcotics.
On March 23 last year, the High Court also stayed the proceedings of the case filed by the mobile court against Ariful, his conviction, and sentence.
The court also asked the officer-in-charge (OC) of Kurigram Sadar Police Station to accept the allegation of journalist Ariful Islam against former deputy commissioner of Kurigram Sultana Pervin, former RDC Nazim Uddin, former assistant commissioner SM Rahatul Islam and former mobile court operator Rintu Bikash Chakma and others, as an FIR.
The High Court bench of Justice Md Ashraful Kamal and Justice Sardar Md Rashed Jahangir passed the order and also issued a rule after holding hearing on a writ petition filed by Ariful Islam challenging the legality of the conviction issued by the mobile court.
In the rule the court wanted to know from the respondents as to why the sentence given to journalist Ariful Islam and the entire proceedings conducted against him should not be declared without lawful authority.
Accordingly, Kurigram Sadar Police Station recorded the case against the then DC Sultana Pervin and other officials on March 30 for assaulting journalist Ariful Islam.
The officials have been suspended from their services following the incident, lawyer Ishrat Hasan said.
In the leave to appeal petition, magistrate Nazim Uddin requested the Appellate Division to stay the HC order that asked the police to record the case against him.
Citing the writ petition, lawyer Ishrat told that it was done as Ariful wrote about the alleged corruption by the district administration, including DC Sultana.
