The High Court on Wednesday asked for a written application regarding putting a Bangladesh Nationalist Party leader from Jashore in bar fetters and handcuffs, while he was receiving treatment at a government hospital in Dhaka under the custody of the Dhaka Central Jail.
A bench of justices Mustafa Zaman Islam and Md Atabullah said this after former attorney general AJ Mohammad drew the bench’s attention to inhuman treatment of detained Jashore Juba Dal unit vice president Aminur Rahman and sought necessary orders on suo motu. The bench said that shackles are generally put on hardened criminals.
The court said that there are several High Court decisions and guidelines on which cases an arrested person can be put in bar-fetters and handcuffs.
The court, however, refused to pass a suo motu order over Aminur’s matter without having a written application.
AJ Mohammad Ali, a pro-BNP lawyers’ leader, moved the High Court with news clippings with photos showing Aminur Rahman sleeping in bar-fetters handcuffs on the floor of the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases in Dhaka on November 28.
Aminur’s photos have gone viral on the social media and drew the ire from different quarters.
‘Why must a citizen of an independent country be put in bar-fetters even if he has a hundred cases pending against him?’ Mohammad Ali argued.
The court observed that the arbitrary use of bar-fetters continues despite the matter has already been settled.
The police arrested Aminur, an assistant professor of management at the Amdabad Degree College in Jashore, from the college campus on November 2 and sent him to the Jashore Central Jail over four cases under the Special Powers Act filed with the Jashore Kotwali police, following BNP’s foiled rally of October 28.
While in the jail, Aminur experienced cardiac troubles to get admitted to the coronary care unit of Jashore General Hospital.
He was later shifted to the Dhaka Central Jail from where he was referred to the National Heart Institute in the capital.
He has been admitted to the institute for last 13 days.
As of November 29, a total of 17,710 leaders and activists of BNP have been arrested, while more than 450 allegedly fictitious cases have been filed since ahead of the main opposition BNP’s October 28 grand rally, according to the party leadership.
Besides the arrests, 576 leaders and activists have been jailed for varying terms in 30 cases in four months since the BNP announced streets rallies across the country, demanding resignation of the Awami League government and holding the national election under a neutral government.
