Vandalism in Ctg court over lawyer's bail
Agitating lawyers vandalised a Chittagong court yesterday after the court rejected a bail petition of their fellow lawyer and his wife in a human trafficking case.
The two accused, however, secured bail from another Chittagong Metropolitan Magistrate's Court.
The couple were arrested at Shah Amanat International Airport on Tuesday night in connection with helping two people, including a Rohingya woman named Rozia, to go to Saudi Arabia with fake Umrah visas.
Around 5:30pm, police produced the two accused -- Jamal Hossain and his wife Yasmin Akhter -- before the court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Md Shadat Hossain Bhuiyan and sought a five-day remand for each of them.
As the court rejected their bail prayer, the lawyers started screaming, said a court police, seeking anonymity.
At that time, the judge left the courtroom hurriedly and went to his chamber.
The agitating lawyers then vandalised the nameplate of the judge, windows of his chamber and ransacked the files at the courtroom, said police.
They also scuffled with police who were trying to pacify them, they said.
Around 300 lawyers then started demonstrating in front of the court and tried to snatch cameras and mobile phones from journalists.
Later, Chittagong District Bar Association leaders and senior lawyers informed the chief metropolitan magistrate about the incident.
Around 6:45pm, another hearing was held at the court of Chittagong Metropolitan Magistrate-1.
The judge granted the bail prayer of the accused in custody of the Bar Association's president and secretary after accepting a Tk 1,000 bail bond from each, said Bar Association President Kafil Uddin Chowdhury.
"In the First Information Report, names of the lawyer and his wife were not mentioned. But when a forwarding report was submitted to the court, their names were included and a five-day remand for each was sought," said Kafil.
But he claimed lawyers were not involved in the vandalism.
"These kinds of activities are not acceptable," he said.
Dismissing the allegation of lawyers' involvement in the vandalism, Iftekar Saimul Chowdhury, former general secretary of the Bar Association, said, “People from different backgrounds come to the court every day. We do not know who carried out the vandalism."
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