Habiganj SP summoned

The High Court yesterday summoned the superintendent of police of Habiganj to appear before it on February 13 for releasing a man after arresting him at the Dhaka airport with a pistol and eight bullets in February last year.

Habiganj’s SP Bidhan Tripura, who was the then deputy commissioner of police for Uttara Zone in Dhaka, had verbally ordered the Biman Bandar Police Station to release one Md Azmat Rahman, who was held with the licenced pistol and the bullets at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka on February 15 last year while he was going abroad.

SP Bidhan will have to appear before the HC bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Shahidul Karim on February 13 to explain his conduct over the incident.

Yesterday, the judges passed the order during hearing a suomoto (voluntary) rule issued on December 12 last year over the legality of releasing Azmat from the police custody.

Officer-in-Charge of Biman Bandar Police Station Noor-a-Azam Miah and its sub-inspector Sukanto Saha appeared before the HC bench on January 24 in line with its December 12 order and offered unconditional apology to the HC for releasing Azmat from the custody.

They told the court that they released Azmat on the instruction from the then DC of police Bidhan Tripura.

During yesterday’s proceedings, Justice Enayetur Rahim, who led the HC bench, told Advocate Yusuf Hossain Humayun, the lawyer for the OC and SI, that many things are now being done over the telephone, not in accordance with the law.

Contacted, Habiganj SP Bidhan Tripura told The Daily Star that Azmat Rahman had been released in accordance with the law after verifying his licenced pistol and bullets.

It is a routine work for the police, he added