‘Accept attempted murder case against former Kurigram DC’
The court has also stayed Arif's conviction for six months
The High Court (HC) has ordered the officer-in-charge of Kurigram Sadar Police Station to accept an attempt to murder case against the accused over the incident of picking up journalist Ariful Islam from his home in Kurigram on March 13.
At the same time, the court has stayed Arif's conviction for six months, and also issued a rule asking why the entire conviction process will not be declared illegal and invalid.
The High Court bench of Justice Md Ashraful Kamal and Justice Sardar Md Rashed Jahangir passed the order on Monday after a hearing that challenged the legality of the conviction by a mobile court.
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Ariful Islam is the Kurigram correspondent of online news portal Bangla Tribune.
After the incident, Bangla Tribune's Executive Editor Harun-Ur-Rashid filed a writ petition at the High Court on March 15 questioning the legality of the conviction.
Lawyer AM Amin Uddin and Ishrat Hasan stood for the petitioner while Attorney General Mahbubey Alam stood for the state.
At the beginning of the hearing, lawyer Amin Uddin pointed out discrepancies in the documents related to Arif's conviction.
He said, "Journalist Arif was convicted on March 13 and the conviction copy was signed on March 14. Besides, he was sent to jail before the conviction, how is this possible?"
He also raised questions about the name of the convict and of his father being the same on the confession statement following section 164.
The court said it had read the case documents and found many inconsistencies.
Earlier on March 13, a taskforce of police, executive magistrate and Ansar members forcibly entered Ariful Islam Rigan's home at Charuapara around midnight and beat him up.
They took him to the Deputy Commissioner's office forcefully. Then, a mobile court sentenced him to one year in jail and fined him Tk50,000 for possessing illegal narcotics.
On March 19, Arif filed a case at Kurigram Sadar Police Station against former DC Sultana Pervin and three assistant commissioners and 35/40 unidentified people.
