‘Punishment to culprits unavoidable’
"If exemplary punishment for the real offenders is not ensured, it will not be possible to prevent the repetition of such incidents," the HC bench of Justice Md Rezaul Hasan and Justice Md Atabullah said yesterday.
The bench said this while issuing a suomuto (voluntary) rule on the death of Taslima Begum Renu, a single mother of two, in a mob beating in the capital's Badda in 2019.
"Above all, ensuring punishment of the culprits is unavoidable for making her two innocent infants motherless," the HC bench said.
With the observation, the bench ordered the deputy commissioner of Dhaka to take necessary steps to ensure the presence of the witnesses of the Taslima Begum Renu murder case before the trial court and monitor the trial proceedings to ensure its proper trial.
The court also issued a rule to this effect and asked the DC of Dhaka to make a reply to the rule in eight weeks, Deputy Attorney General Imran Ahmed Bhuiyan told this correspondent.
The HC bench said it is necessary to ensure a fair trial of the case through properly analysing the circumstantial evidence and documents, and confessional statements of the accused as there is apparently no interested person from the victims about this case.
On July 20, 2019, 40-year-old Renu, mother of Tuba and Mahir, went to Badda Uttar-Purba Primary School to inquire about the admission process to get four-year-old Tuba enrolled in the school.
A mob beat her brutally to death in front of the school gate, suspecting her to be a kidnapper. Videos taken on mobile phones and CCTV, which later went viral, showed multiple people assaulting Renu with several hundred people around, most of whom were just silent spectators.
The killing, which outraged the entire country, took place at a time when incidents of mob attacks on people labelling them as "child kidnappers" were on the rise.
Following the incident, Syed Nasir Uddin Titu, Renu's nephew, filed the case against 400 to 500 unnamed attackers at Badda Police Station.
The investigation officer of the case submitted a charge sheet to a Dhaka court on September 10, 2020, against the 15 accused.
On December 2 that year, Metropolitan Magistrate Md Manunur Rashid took cognisance of charges against the 15 accused and issued an arrest warrant against one Mohin Uddin, who was shown a fugitive in the case's charge sheet.
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