HC may decide on suo-moto rule today
The High Court is likely to deliver its verdict today on a suo-muto (voluntary) rule over the sensational incident of gang rape on the Murari Chand College campus in Sylhet on September 25 last year.
The HC bench of Justice Md Mozibur Rahman Miah and Justice Md Kamrul Hossain Mollah is set to deliver the verdict, court sources said.
The bench has concluded hearing on the rule on March 11 this year and kept the issue on CAV (Curia Advisari Vult, a Latin term that suggests reserving of judgement until a later time).
Following two separate reports published on The Daily Star on September 27 last year under the headlines "Rape in MC College: 6 accused BCL men moved with impunity" and "Unpublished crimes led to horror like this", the HC bench on September 29 issued the suo-muto rule.
In the rule, the court asked the authorities concerned to show causes why they should not be directed to take appropriate legal steps against the principal and hostel superintendent of the MC College for their negligence and failure to save the innocent woman from being gang raped.
The bench also formed a three-member committee headed by Sylhet's District and Sessions Judge Md Bazlur Rahman to conduct an inquiry into the incident of rape on the campus.
The committee submitted its 179-page probe report to the HC bench on October 20 last year, saying that there was negligence of two hostel superintendents, three day-guards, two night-guards.
Principal Prof Mohammad Saleh Ahmed, the head of the institution, also cannot avert his responsibilities, the committee said in its inquiry report, adding that some former and current students of the college had occupied seats in the hostel and Saifur Rahman, a former student, managed to occupy the residence of the hostel superintendent.
Thus, they dared to commit the heinous crime on the college campus, the probe report mentioned.
The committee made 15 recommendations in order to ensure security on the college campus. Supreme Court lawyer Mohammad Mesbah Uddin placed The Daily Star reports before the HC bench.
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