Withdraw SP, other policemen

The High Court yesterday ordered the immediate withdrawal of the superintendent of Gaibandha police for not cooperating properly with an enquiry over the torching of Santal houses during an eviction drive in November last year.

The court also directed the authorities concerned to withdraw all police personnel who were on duty on November 6 in Chamgari Beel, where the Santal houses were set on fire.

The bench of Justice Obaidul Hassan and Justice Krishna Debnath passed the order after holding a brief hearing on the enquiry report prepared by the chief judicial magistrate of Gaibandha.

The report said three police personnel and some local criminals had set fire to the houses during the eviction drive that left three people killed.

Gaibandha Chief Judicial Magistrate Mohammad Shahidullah in his report said three policemen, one of whom was from the Detective Branch, and some locals were directly involved in the torching of houses.

The magistrate added that he became sure that the three were police members, as they are seen wearing police uniform and badges in the video. But he could not identify them as they were wearing helmets and also because the video was shot from quite far.

Shahidullah said when he had asked the Gaibandha SP Ashraful Islam for the names and designations of the policemen and the DB official concerned, the police official did not give him those.

He rather told Shahidullah that two enquiries over the issue were being conducted by the police. The SP also said the footage of the torching needed to be forensically tested.

The bench in its yesterday's order said it appeared from the letter of the SP that he tried to avoid answering questions placed by the chief judicial magistrate to identify the people responsible.

“The inaction of the SP in providing information to the chief judicial magistrate is not acceptable,” said Justice Obaidul Hassan.

All police personnel deployed in the area that day were not involved in the misdeed, the court said, adding that the entire police department should not be blamed for the incident.

However, for removing suspicion among people about the police force, all police personnel who had gone to the Chamgari Beel area that day should be withdrawn.

The court then directed the home secretary, the inspector general of police, and the deputy inspector general (Rangpur range) to comply with its orders.

The court also asked the IGP and the DIG of Rangpur range to inform the court within four weeks what they have discovered from the footage.

It fixed March 9 for passing the next order in the case.

Yesterday's order came following a writ petition filed by Ain o Salish Kendra, Brotee, and Association for Land Reform and Development (ALRD) on November 16.

On December 14 last year, the HC bench directed the chief judicial magistrate to find out whether police were involved in setting fire to Santal houses during the eviction drive in the district's Gobindaganj upazila.

The directive came after different national and global media outlets ran a video that showed a policeman in uniform and a man in a half-sleeve shirt joined another man in a pink T-shirt to set fire to a Santal shanty. The video clip went viral in social media.

AM Amin Uddin stood for the writ petitioners while Deputy Attorney General Motahar Hossain Saju represented the government.