HC asks district admin to report

The High Court yesterday directed the district administration of Narayanganj to submit three separate and detailed reports specifying steps taken so far against the perpetrators responsible for humiliating schoolteacher Shyamal Kanti Bhakta.

The deputy commissioner and the superintendent of police of Narayanganj and the officer-in-charge of Bandar police were asked to submit the reports before the court by June 8.

Expressing dissatisfaction over the three reports submitted by the three officials concerned yesterday, the court said it would take action if the next reports were prepared insincerely.

The HC bench of Justice Moyeenul Islam Chowdhury and Justice Md Iqbal Kabir also fixed June 9 for passing further orders on the issue.

During hearing of a suo moto rule, the court said the reports submitted by the DC, the SP and the OC were not prepared in line with the rule and order.

On May 18, the HC bench issued the suomoto rule asking the authorities concerned to explain in two weeks as to why they should not be directed to take necessary legal actions against local lawmaker Salim Osman and others, who were involved in humiliating Shyamal Kanti Bhakta.

The court also directed the DC, the SP and the OC to submit separate reports on the steps taken against the perpetrators responsible for the humiliation.

The HC yesterday expressed dissatisfaction as there was no specific explanation on the steps taken against the perpetrators, said lawyers MK Rahman and Mohsen Rashid, who placed different newspaper reports before the court on the incident for a necessary order on May 18.

Deputy Attorney General Motaher Hossain Sazu told The Daily Star that the HC yesterday received four separate reports from the education ministry and the three government officials concerned.

The government officials submitted progress reports on their actions but did not mention what criminal offence had taken place through the humiliation of the schoolteacher and what steps were taken against the perpetrators, he added.

He further said the education ministry has submitted a detailed report although it was not directed by the HC to that end.

The HC has kept all the reports in the record, he added.

The education ministry probe finds that the Piyar Sattar Latif High School committee forced Head Teacher Shyamal Kanti Bhakta to resign with unproven allegation that he had hurt the religious sentiment of the Muslims.

The allegation brought against Shyamal was not found to be true, the probe body said, adding that relevant rules were not followed in suspending him.

The probe body also recommended that he could be reinstated.

Shyamal, headmaster of Piyar Sattar Latif High School in Bandar area, was beaten up by a mob and made to squat holding his earlobes in presence of local Jatiya Party lawmaker AKM Salim Osman on May 13.

The locals 'punished' him for allegedly making offensive comments about religion while meting out corporal punishment to a student on May 8.

A video clip of the incident had gone viral on social media, triggering public outrage and a firestorm of protests on different social networking sites.