The High Court yesterday directed the Tangail chief judicial magistrate to conduct a judicial inquiry into an allegation of torture of a Tangail schoolboy Sabbir Shikdar before he was sentenced for two years jail by a mobile court on September 18.The HC also declared illegal mobile court verdict that sentenced Sabbir Shikder two years’ jail last month for threatening Awami League MP Anupam Shahjahan. It has acquitted Sabbir of the charges.
The HC also directed the secretaries of public administration and home ministry and inspector general of police to withdraw Sakhipur Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Mohammad Rafiqul Islam, also an executive magistrate, and officer-in-charge (OC) of Sakhipur Police Station Mohammad Maksudul Alam and post them outside Dhaka division ‘for fair investigation’.
A vacation bench of the HC comprising Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Ashish Ranjan Das came up with the orders and directives after hearing a suo moto rule issued by it earlier following a newspaper report about the conviction of the schoolboy.
The ninth-grader Sabbir, who was sentenced by the mobile court reportedly under the Information and Communication Technology Act for threatening Awami League MP Anupam Shahjahan, appeared before the HC on September 27 following its suo moto rule.
After appearing before the HC as per its directive, Sabbir had on September 27 told the High Court (HC) that he had been tortured by the MP, police, and the local UNO before being sent to prison. Sabbir is a student of Protima Bonki Public High School in Sakhipur upazila,
“Plainclothes policemen picked me up from my house around 9:00pm on September 16 and took me blindfolded to Sakhipur police station,” he told the HC bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Ashish Ranjan Das during the hearing on a suo moto rule issued by it earlier on the matter. “Later, they took me to the residence of MP Anupam Shahjahan. He beat me up with a stick. After that, the police took me to the police station and assaulted me, and threatened to kill me in a crossfire,” he added.
During the hearing, Sabbir also said that after being tortured by Sakhipur police station officer-in-charge (OC) Maksudul Islam and MP Anupam Shahjahan, he was taken to the office of the Sakhipur upazila nirbahi officer (UNO), Rafiqul Islam, where the UNO kicked him before jailing him for two years.
The HC rule was based on a report published in a national daily on September 20, saying that a mobile court, led by executive magistrate Mohammad Rafiqul Islam of Sakhipur upazila in Tangail, had sentenced Sabbir Shikder to two years’ imprisonment on the charge of uploading on Facebook messenger a threat message to Anupam Shajahan Joy, MP of Tangail-8 (Basail-Sakhipur) constituency. The report quoted executive magistrate Rafiqul Islam saying the Class IX boy had been penalised under the ICT Act after admitting to have sent a Facebook text to local lawmaker Anupam Shajahan Joy.
However, the Tangail authorities told the HC that Sabbir, who is now on bail, had been penalised “for narcotics”.
SM Rezaul Karim, lawyer of the UNO, and Nurul Islam Sujon, lawyer of the OC, told the HC that a mobile court had sentenced Sabbir for carrying marijuana. The lawyers also said that the newspaper report that prompted the court summons had been published to malign the image of the lawmaker.
