Some officers-in- charge (OCs) of police stations and deputy commissioners (DC) consider themselves “all in all,” the High Court said.
The bench of Justice Md Moinul Islam Chowdhury and Justice Khizir Hayat made the remarks on Tuesday (Jul 9) while hearing a bail petition by suspended police inspector Moazzem Hossain.
Moazzem, who was the OC of Feni’s Sonagazi police, has been sued under the Digital Security Act filed over spreading the video of madrasa student Nusrat Jahan Rafi, who died after she was set on fire.
Attorney General Mahbubey Alam moved for the state and Md Ahsan Ullah and Salma Sultana moved for the defendant.
The defence argued that a journalist found the video on Moazzem’s phone and leaked it on social media.
“If the video had reached the journalist earlier, she [Nusrat] wouldn’t have had to die,” the court said.
“The punishment is very less under the legal provision in which he [Moazzem] has been sued. Besides it’s a bail-able case and he is ill,” defence counsel Ahsan Ullah told the court.
The court shot down his argument saying that the charges brought against him were very grave.
Arguing against bail for the suspended police officer, the attorney general, said, “As a public servant he [Moazzem] recorded the video that went viral. If he gets bail what message would that send?”
Alam added that if indeed the defendant were ill, the jail authority would ensure his treatment as Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Medical University has medical facilities for prisoners.
The state’s top legal officer slammed the Moazzem saying, “I have never seen such irresponsibility on a police officer’s part. The questions that were asked were obscene!”
The court then said, “Some officers consider themselves zamindars. Not all, but some. There are similar cases everywhere in the world but it seems to be more in our country.”
It observed that the questions asked when Nusrat went to file the sexual assault case were unnecessary and completely out of context and if she was provided safety then things wouldn’t have gotten this far.