High Court seeks information on how many people have died in police custody in the last 20 years
The High Court has asked the Ministry of Home Affairs' Security Service Division to submit this information within six months. The directive was issued by a High Court bench comprising Justice Naima Haider and Justice Kazi Jinat Haque at the conclusion of the preliminary hearing of a writ petition filed for public interest.
On February 6, an English daily published a report titled 'Unnatural deaths in Chittagong Central Jail, family alleges torture'. On the same day, an online version of a private television channel published a report titled 'Unnatural deaths in Chittagong Central Jail, family alleges torture'.
On April 19, the High Court issued an order for judicial investigation into the death of Rubel De, involving lawyers Syeda Nasrin and advocate M. Shahinuzzaman, and sent a legal notice for compensation of Tk 5 crore to his family. In May, a writ was filed in the High Court on behalf of the Law and Settlement Center. The two reports were attached to the writ.
At the end of the hearing of the writ, the court issued a rule. The court ruled that the judiciary would not declare the inaction of the disputants in judicial investigation into the death of Rubel De as legal, and that it was desired to know why compensation of five crore taka should not be paid to his family
