Arms, Drug Cases: Complete probe within a month

The High Court yesterday directed police to complete investigation in arms and drug-related cases and submit reports to the courts concerned within a month after the cases are filed.

The court also ordered the Inspector General of Police to set up monitoring cells in all districts to make sure that the investigation officers (IOs) follow the directive.

It said the officers, who would fail to file the probe reports in a month, will have to explain to the courts that why they could not do so.

The court also said the investigation in such cases should not take more than 15 to 20 days, according to their observation.

But, the IOs take several months and even years to complete investigation into such cases which is not desirable, it added.

The HC bench of Justice Jahangir Hossain Selim and Justice Riaz Uddin Khan came up with the order and observation while hearing a bail petition filed by one Nurul Islam Sheikh, who was accused in a drug case lodged with Joydevpur Police Station in Gazipur.

Deputy Attorney General (DAG) Zahid Sarwar Kazal told The Daily Star that a team of police, led by Sub-Inspector Abdul Halim, arrested one Raju and recovered 10 yaba pills from his possession on November 29 last year.

Later, SI Halim filed a case with Joydevpur Police Station in this connection and implicated Nurul, a Bangladeshi expatriate in Norway, in the case following the statement of Raju.

Nurul then filed a petition with the HC seeking anticipatory bail in the case.

Following the bail petition, the HC granted anticipatory bail to Nurul and summoned Halim to appear before it yesterday to explain why he had implicated Nurul in this case.

Yesterday, Halim appeared before the HC bench and said he had dropped Nurul from the case.

The court said Halim had purposefully implicated Nurul in this case and directed the superintendent of police in Gazipur to withdraw him from the police station within two weeks, DAG Kazal added.