The High Court (HC) has summoned Noor Alam, a former Chief Judicial Magistrate of Chandpur and now a judge of the Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal in Bagerhat, for not taking action on police torture.
The trial court judge has been asked to appear before the higher court on November 22.
The HC bench of Justice Abdul Hakim and Justice Fatema Najib issued the order on Tuesday (November 9).
The HC bench summoned the trial court judge for not giving a satisfactory explanation for recording a confessional statement of a 16-year-old accused in a murder case at Matlab police station in Chandpur without taking action against police despite knowing about torture on the accused.
Barrister Rimi Nahrin, lawyer of the juvenile accused, confirmed the matter. She appeared for the juvenile accused in the court, while Deputy Attorney General Sarwar Hossain Bappi represented the state.
According to Barrister Rimi Nahrin, another bench of the High Court on March 14 sought an explanation from Noor Alam for recording confessional statement of the 16-year-old accused without taking action against torture by police. The judge submitted an explanation to the higher court. The explanation of the judge came to the notice of the High Court during the hearing of the extension of bail of the juvenile accused Farhad. The explanation did not seem satisfactory to the court. For this reason, the HC bench summoned the judge.
On March 14, the HC bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Md Mostafizur Rahman issued a show-cause to Chandpur court judge Noor Alam. The bench had asked him to submit an explanation within four weeks. At the same time, the court granted bail to the juvenile accused in the case.
According to the case statement, Sohail Rana, a student in Chandpur, was killed by his friends and relatives over an expensive mobile phone. He was killed on August 19 in 2019. Later, his brother filed a case with Matlab police station, but no one’s name was mentioned in the case. Later, Farhad, Mehdi and Rubel were arrested in connection with the incident. They admitted that they had killed Sohail for his mobile phone.
The prime accused in the case Farhad came to the High Court to seek bail. Farhad was found to be 16-year old during the bail hearing. But his age was mentioned 19 years in the chargesheet. The court expressed displeasure over this and also issued showcase notice to the judge for recording his statement despite police torture. The higher court said it was the duty of a judge to take action against the police if any signs of torture were seen while taking a statement.