Limon cases proved ‘false, fabricated’: NHRC boss
Limon cases proved ‘false, fabricated’: NHRC boss
National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Chairman Prof Mizanur Rahman today said the cases against Limon Hossain have been proved ‘fabricated and false’ at last.
“The National Human Rights Commission feels immensely happy at the end of the day although the state and the court have been late to take steps to withdraw the fabricated and false cases,” he told The Daily Star this evening.
“Law enforcement agencies and trial court should take a lesson that no innocent citizen should be harassed merely to satisfy a particular agency,” he added.
A Jhalakathi court earlier in the day dropped the charges of obstructing law enforcers from discharging their duties against Limon Hossain, clearing the college student of both the criminal cases Rab filed against him after shooting him in the leg in 2011.
The court decision came 15 months after the government decision to withdraw both the cases filed by the Rapid Action Battalion (Rab).
On March 23, 2011, a Rab team shot Limon in the left leg at Shaturia village, taking him for a notorious criminal it was looking for.
The elite force then picked him up and sent him to a hospital. On the same day, Rab filed two cases against him — one for possessing arms and another for obstructing law enforcers. As evidence against the poor, meritorious boy, Rab produced a worn out revolver and a used bullet cap.
Four days after the shooting, Limon’s leg had to be amputated. He now walks on an artificial leg.
The police submitted the charge sheet against him in the arms case on April 24, 2011. The charge sheet in the second case was submitted on July 1, 2011.
The government on July 9 last year decided to withdraw both the cases following a request by National Human Rights (NHRC) Commission chairman Dr Mizanur Rahman. He was in arm a case relieved on July 29, 2013. This comes eight days after Limon was indicted in the arms case, drawing huge outcry from rights bodies over the government’s failure to protect the innocent college boy.
On July 11, 2013, the government issued a gazette notification for withdrawing the two cases the elite force had filed against him.