OC Helal's jail term upheld
A Dhaka court yesterday upheld a verdict of a lower court that had sentenced former officer-in-charge of Khilgaon Police Station Md Helal Uddin to three years' imprisonment for torturing a former Dhaka University student.
Judge Md Zahidul Kabir of the Fifth Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court passed the order dismissing an appeal filed by Helal Uddin challenging the lower court verdict.
The court ordered the then OC within 30 days to surrender before the lower court that had sentenced him to three years' imprisonment for his involvement in torture of the student.
On May 17, 2015, Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Alamgir Kabir Raj handed down the sentence in Helal's absence and fined the convict Tk 10,000, in default of which he has to spend three more months in jail. The court on May 31, 2015, sent Helal to jail on surrender.
In the early hours of July 16, 2011, some plainclothes policemen from Khilgaon Police Station stopped Kader at Segunbagicha while he was returning to his dormitory Fazlul Huq Hall from a relative's house in capital's Eskaton area.
They beat Kader, then a DU student of biochemistry and molecular biology, with sticks, according to the statement of the case filed by Kadar in January 2012.
Later police implicated Kader in three false cases filed with Mohammadpur and Khilgaon police stations. But following media outcry, the High Court on July 28, 2011, ordered the police to probe into the incident.
Three officials of Khilgaon Police Station, including officer-in-charge Helal, were suspended and Kader was released on bail on August 3, 2011. He was acquitted of all the charges in 2012. Then he sued Helal on January 23, 2012, for torturing him and filing the false cases against him.
While talking to The Daily Star yesterday, Kader expressed his satisfaction over the judgment.
He said some policemen like Helal are tarnishing the image of the police force.
"I believe the bad cops will learn a lesson from the judgment that if they do wrongs they will be punished," he said.
He expressed gratitude to the media for unearthing the truth.
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