529 languishing in CHT jails without trial

The unutilised Judge Court building at Bandarban. PHOTO: STAR

There are at least 529 accused held on charge of criminal offences who are now in Rangamati, Khagrachhari and Bandarban district jails.

Trial is being delayed for years as Magistrate courts in district headquarters, and courts of the Divisional Commissioner and the Additional Divisional Commissioner (AC) in Chittagong can not dispose of the cases as they are doing the judicial work in addition to their administrative work, sources said.

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Buildings and all other infrastructure facilities were built long ago but the government is yet to appoint judges to begin functioning of the judge courts though a law in this regard was enacted by parliament in 2003.

Till now the government has not come up with a Gazette notification to start functioning of judge courts.

The delay in trial causes sufferings not only to the accused but also to the plaintiff. It involved additional expenditure for the government also because, it itself becomes the plaintiff at times.

In absence of judge courts, the accused who can not afford to engage lawyers do not get assistance from the government's legal aid fund. This is an obstacle to getting justice, some lawyers told this correspondent.

The then Awami League government set up the establishments including Judge Court buildings and residences for Judges in three district headquarters in 1998. In Rangamati, the building built for official residence of the District Judge is now being used as residence of the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) Regional Council Chairman.

The delay in disposal of cases is increasing the number of inmates in the three district jails, which now accommodate people much more than their capacities, sources in Rangamati and Khagrachhari district jails said. They are huddled in jails and are deprived of facilities.

As of Monday (July 25), the number of accused was 196 including five women in Rangamati jail, 192 including four women in Khagrachhari and 141 including 10 women in Bandarban jail, according to sources in the three district jails.

The convicts were 41 in Rangamati, 36 in Khagrachhari and 33 in Bandarban jails till July 24.

Some of the cases were sent to the court of Divisional Commissioner from Magistrate courts in the three hill districts, but there has been little progress in their trial. The rest are pending with the Magistrate courts.

As per Section 9 of the Prisoners Act 1894, an accused should be produced before court once in every 14 days.

But this is often violated as the jail authorities lack administrative, legal and logistic support to produce the accused before court within the stipulated time, they said. Moreover the magistrate courts can not issue production warrants.

A high official in Rangamati Jail said, as per rule, they send lists of accused to the Magistrate court regularly, seeking 'production warrant' (court permission to produce an accused). But production warrant is issued for only a handful of them.

"We have nothing to do if the court can not give a schedule", he said.