HC takes action on 8-yr-old girl's arrest, asks govt to explain

The High Court (HC) yesterday issued a Suo Moto rule asking the government to explain within two weeks as to why the arrest of an eight-year-old girl on charges of carrying twenty bottles of Phensidyl and the order to send her to jail should not be declared illegal.
The bench comprising Justice M Iman Ali and Justice Md Emdadul Haque passed the rule after advocate Fahima Nasrin, vice-president of Bangladesh National Women Lawyers' Association (BNWLA), drew the court's attention to a news report published in The Daily Star on April 21.
The court made Khulna Metropolitan Police (KMP) commissioner, chief judicial magistrate (CJM) and Sub-inspector Ashim Kumar Das of Detective Branch (DB) of KMP the respondents to the rule.
The court asked Khulna divisional office of BNWLA to take appropriate steps to get eight-year-old Arifa released and also to take her into their custody. The court also ordered the copy of the suo moto be sent to the Inspector General of Police (IGP).
Eight-year-old Arifa, daughter of Rajabuddin of Lobatkati village in Satkhira, and a student of class three, was arrested and sent to Khulna District Jail after being sued for carrying twenty bottles of Phensidyl Sunday.
The DB police produced her before the Khulna CJM's Court on April 21 and she was sent to jail.
The law enforcers seized the bottles from Arifa who strapped those to her legs and waist.