Torture of 3 Children in Custody

HC asks govt to explain

12 September 2011, 18:00 PM

Staff Correspondent

The High Court yesterday asked the government to explain within four weeks why the torture of three children in the custody of Lalbagh Police Station should not be declared illegal. A Bangla daily on September 11 reported that Lalbagh police allegedly tortured three children -- Pakhi Aktar,8, her brother Barek,10, and her cousin Mirajul, 7, seriously by detaining them for six days. A vacation bench of HC yesterday issued a suo moto rule also asking the government to explain why punitive action should not be taken against the police personnel responsible for torturing the children. The bench of Justice Hasan Foez Siddique and Justice Md Anwarul Haque came up with the rule following the newspaper report headlined “Torture against 3 children by detaining them for six days in the Thana”. Supreme Court lawyer ABM Bayezid yesterday placed the Bangla daily before the HC bench, praying for action against the police personnel responsible for torturing the children. He told the court that torture against the children is inhuman and also against the Children Act 1974. According to the newspaper report, the police detained the three in connection with looting 80 tolas of gold jewellery from the house of garments businessman Mahbubur Rahman at Nawabganj in the city's Lalbagh area on September 3. The children were sent to National Juvenile Development Centre in Gazipur on September 11 after police produced them before a juvenile court in connection with the incident of looting. Home secretary, inspector general of police, commissioner of Dhaka metropolitan police, director general of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) and officer-in-charge of Lalbagh Police Station, and other officials concerned have been made respondents to the rule.