Wrongful Imprisonment of Md Arman: part of HC verdict over compensation stayed

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court today stayed for eight weeks a part of the High Court verdict that directed the inspector general of police (IGP) to give Tk 20 lakh as compensation to a victim, who was wrongly arrested by police and kept in jail instead of the original accused in a case.

Md Arman, a technician at Benarasi Palli in Dhaka's Mirpur, suffered in jail for around five years instead of the original accused in a drug case.

Today, Chamber Judge of the Appellate Division Justice Md Nuruzzaman passed the stay order following a petition filed by the IGP challenging the HC order.

The IGP will file a leave to appeal petition with the apex court challenging the HC verdict after receiving its (HC verdict) full text of verdict, Deputy Attorney General Amit Das Gupta told The Daily Star.

He said the IGP's office recently submitted the petition to the Appellate Division saying that the HC has ordered the IGP to give Tk 20 lakh to Arman without assessing the damage.

Besides, departmental action has been taken against the police officers who are responsible for wrongly arresting and keeping Arman in jail and therefore, the IGP is not liable for giving any compensation, DAG Amit Das said citing the IGP's petition.

Following a writ petition filed by Law and Life Foundation, a rights organisation, the HC on December 31 last year, declared the arrest and detention of Arman illegal and contradictory to his fundamental and human rights, and asked the authorities concerned of the government to immediately release him from Dhaka central jail.