Cases based on falsities

The absurdity of accusing a bedridden 82-year-old, just out of the hospital, of taking part in an assembly of individuals at a playground to carry out "subversive activities" would seem fictional if it weren't actually a true happening reported by this paper. The police have accused him of being one of the "miscreants" from the BNP who had gathered at a meeting at a playground in Wari. Along with this ailing octogenarian, a ward-level BNP leader has been accused of taking part in the same meeting although he has travel and immigration documents that say that he was abroad when the incident allegedly took place.

It is indeed disturbing that an 82-year-old, falsely accused of planning to carry out subversive activities, would be forced to go to court in a wheelchair to obtain bail.

The incident is certainly very worrying. For one thing it indicates how easily false cases can be filed especially when the plaintiff is from a law enforcement agency. In fact we have seen in the recent past how individuals belonging to opposition parties have been randomly picked and slammed with cases. A Bengali daily has reported a deceased BNP leader being accused of vandalism and blasting cocktails 28 months after his death!

Are we to believe that this will be the trend in the near future—at least till election day—with individuals being sued and taken to court without even crosschecking whether they were present at the scene in the first place? Can the police just randomly file cases against people without preliminary investigation?

It is strange also that some locals who live or work near the busy playground—where this assembly was alleged to have taken place—have said that they had no knowledge that such a meeting took place.

We are concerned that such instances of abuse of power will be on the rise unless the government makes a concerted effort to ensure that law enforcers cannot get away with filing false cases. The offenders here are those who have wrongly accused individuals and they are the ones who should be held accountable for their actions.