Writ filed by Pro-BNP lawyers for probe committee on police action during SCBA polls

Pro-BNP Bangladesh Jatiyatabadi Ainjibi Oikkya Panel filed a writ petition with the High Court on Sunday (19 March) seeking directions to form a committee to investigate police action on lawyers and journalists during the Supreme Court Bar Association elections.

The petition filed by the pro-BNP lawyers would be placed for hearing by a bench of Justice Md Khasruzzaman and Justice Md Mahmud Hassan Talukder on Monday, said Pro-BNP panel president candidate Mahbub Uddin Khokon.

In the writ, the secretary of the public security department of the home ministry, the law secretary, the registrar general of the Supreme Court, the inspector general of police, the Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner, the Detective Branch (DB) deputy commissioner and the Officer-in-Charge of Shahbag Police Station have been made respondents.
Petitioners sought a rule on the defendants for their explanations over the legality of the police's indiscriminate baton charge on lawyers and journalists on 15 March in the SCBA election.

At least 10 journalists and lawyers were injured as police charged batons on them on the Supreme Court premises amid a scuffle between pro-Awami League and pro-BNP lawyers over the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) election on 15 March.

Voting was held on March 15 and 16 amid the ruckus, violence, clashes, police action, and the allegations of ballot theft and tearing.

Three separate cases were filed in this connection.

Bangabandhu Awami Ainjibi Parishad, the pro-Awami League lawyers' panel, won all 14 posts of the executive committee of the SCBA polls.