Brahmanbaria Child Rape Case: HC blasts police, doctors for flaws
The High Court yesterday heavily criticised police and doctors of Brahmanbaria after finding inconsistancies in reports submitted in a case filed over the rape of a child.
"The police are called friends of people. Each alphabet in the word police has distinct meanings and they have significance. Do the police act in accordance with those meanings?" the HC bench of Justice Sheikh Md Zakir Hossain and Justice K M Zahid Sarwar asked Md Anisur Rahman, the superintendent of police in Brahmanbaria.
The HC was referring to the investigation and medical reports by the police and physicians in Brahmanbaria.
Hearing a suo moto (voluntary) rule, the HC bench found in the police report that an attempt has been made to implicate a boy aged 11 or 12 under Women and Children Repression Prevention Act's section 9(1), which has provision for death penalty.
"The investigation officer submitted a charge sheet to the trial court, implicating a boy… although it was not determined whether an incident of rape took place at all. The investigation officer said in the report that the accused was a 15-year-old and termed the incident a gang rape. Why did the investigation officer try to implicate a child in the case?" the bench asked.
The bench questioned whether the officer did the investigation only to establish that the victim was raped at a hospital. The officer collected medical certificates from hospitals where there is a serious anomaly regarding the time of the incident.
SP Anisur Rahman told the court that he was sorry and that the investigating officer made a mistake. Police will be cautious in the future, he added.
Rebuking the doctors, the HC bench said, "You remain busy with private practice, leaving [matters relating to] our lives to the peons and staff members, which is not expected [of you]."
The court then asked Brahmanbaria Civil Surgeon Dr Ekram Ullah why the results of capability tests of the boy and girl had been mentioned in the same column of a prescribed form.
The civil surgeon also apologised unconditionally to the HC.
Twelve officials were present before the HC bench in line with a summons order issued on January 17.
Yesterday, the HC exonerated them from having to appear in person at the court for future hearings. But they might again be ordered to appear in person if the court felt that that was necessary.
Besides the civil surgeon and the SP, Officer-in-Charge of Nasirnagar Police Station ATM Ariful Haque, Resident Medical Officer of Brahmanbaria Sadar Hospital Dr Ekramul Reza, medical officers Fahmida Akter, Zinan Reza, Tofayel Haque, Farida Yeasmin, and Nasirnagar Upazila Health Complex medical officers Syed Md Shahriar, Tasnim Tamanna, and Md Shafiqul Islam were present at the court.
On September 11, 2020, a case was filed with Nasirnagar Police Station accusing a boy of raping a seven-year-old girl.
On November 3, following a bail petition filed by the accused, the HC bench granted six months' anticipatory bail to the boy and ordered the investigator to complete the investigation and submit a report to the court in a month.
The officer submitted a report to the HC, stating that the victim was admitted to Brahmanbaria Sadar Hospital on September 6, the day after she was raped.
The officer annexed three separate medical statements to the investigation report.
After examining the documents, the HC bench on January 17 summoned the police and medical officers and asked them to explain their roles in connection with the issue.
The HC also ordered the health secretary and inspector general of police to launch separate probes into the matter and to submit the probe reports by a month.
The HC yesterday fixed March 11 for passing further orders.
Deputy Attorney General Md Monirul Islam told The Daily Star that the office of the inspector general of police submitted a report to the HC mentioning that the police officers of Nasirnagar Police Station were negligent in discharging their duties in connection with the rape case.
He said the health secretary has yet to submit any report.
Attorney General AM Amin Uddin represented the state while Bakir Uddin Bhuiyan the doctors.
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