Journalist’s arrest highly questionable

There are enough grounds to suggest that the arrest of the Kurigram correspondent of Bangla Tribune Ariful Islam by a mobile court under a taskforce of Kurigram district administration and sentencing him to one-year imprisonment on the early hours of March 14 after he was picked up from his home on charges of possessing narcotics was done out of spite at the orders of the district commissioner rather than for the purpose of serving the rule of law. A Kurigram court, however, granted bail to Ariful yesterday.

There are contradictions in the statement of the district administration and officials of the Department of Narcotics Control (DNC) at Kurigram district office about the anti-narcotics drive on Ariful's home, which compels us to surmise that Ariful incurred the wrath of the district administration for carrying reports of the alleged irregularities of the DC and obliges us to ask a few questions in this regard.

Firstly, we wonder whether the drive was led by a judicial magistrate or not. If not, then the punishment would be illegal since mobile courts led by executive magistrates, according to a 2017 Ruling of the High Court, are unconstitutional. Secondly, what was the hurry in awarding the punishment? If it was indeed a part of the anti-narcotics drive, would it not have been better to put the accused through the process of law to find out whether he was part of a narcotics gang? Thirdly, is it normal for mobile courts to take an accused to the DC's office after arrest, and beat him up, as has been alleged? It is also pertinent to ask if the mobile court went beyond its remit and raid someone's house late at night? And one wonders why the DC has named a pond that she has used government money to excavate, after herself? And finally, if it was indeed an anti-narcotics drive planned by the DNC, why was the local head of DNC not aware of it till informed by his subordinates the next afternoon?

   We believe that there is more to it than what the DC has said and it is encouraging that the government has asked the Commissioner of Rangpur Division to enquire into the matter. Arresting a journalist from his home at the dead of night and awarding him summary punishment is not only a miscarriage of justice and gross misuse of power, it is also a blatant violation of the constitution. Not only will such highhanded and illegal acts by public servants denude public confidence in the local administration, it will also gag press freedom.