The High Court has issued a rule demanding an explanation on why the family of Taslima Begum Renu who was lynched in Dhaka’s Badda should not be given a compensation of Tk 10 million over the incident.

The court ordered the secretaries to the cabinet division, law and information ministries, Inspector General of Police, Dhaka metro police (DMP) commissioner and Badda police OC to respond to the rule within four weeks.

The bench of Justice Moyeenul Islam Chowdhury and Justice Md Ashraful Kamal issued the rule on Tuesday (Aug 27).

Taslima Begum Renu was lynched at a school in Dhaka’s Badda on Jul 20 on suspicion of being a child lifter. She had gone to the school to make enquiries about enrolling her four-year old daughter there.

Renu’s sister and nephew filed a writ petition was filed on Aug 16 seeking Tk 10 million in compensation for her family.

The writ sought a rule for enacting a separate act to punish those who participated in mob lynching and to have the respondents’ failure to protect the victim declared illegal. 

Earlier, Supreme Court lawyer Ishrat Hasan filed a writ petition over the incident at the HC on Jul 28 seeking Tk 50 million in compensation for Taslima’s family. The writ also sought a rule  Renu’s family Tk 10 million as interim compensation within 15 days.