Shamima Choudhury
This week the Law Adviser Asif Nazrul of the current Interim government of Dr. Muhammad Yunus summarily dismissed and dropped 1,214 court cases and he also proposed to drop another 16, 429 cases soon. He termed these cases as “ghost cases”. Not only that the High Court also dismissed the Niko Corruption Case against the former Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia and termed such cases as “politically motivated”. A total of 37 cases have recently been dropped against Begum Khaleda Zia and most of these cases were filed during the Caretaker Government of 2007-08 when a military-backed technocratic government was installed. In addition, thousands of cases against the BNP and the Islamic Jamatee party activists have also been dropped. Many of these cases were launched before the Sheikh Hasina government was installed in January 2009.
All the court cases and also all verdicts that were given by the nation’s highest courts in the last few years against Dr. Muhammad Yunus and his business ventures have also been dropped by the court after his becoming the head of the present interim government. He and all of his business entities have been favoured with tax exemption for the next 5 years. This is his greatest achievement of becoming an Advisor.
In fact, the country’s judiciary has been grossly abused and misused by all governments in the past few years in Bangladesh. All governments including Sheikh Hasina’s government used the activist judiciary to achieve their goals. The current Interim government of Dr. Yunus is no exception . Rather the abuse of the judiciary has reached to such a height that the ‘nation’s judiciary and the justice system’ have become a “joke”. They have lost people’s confidence and trust. The judiciary also has become one of the nation”s top extortion mechanisms.
Since the ouster of the past government of Sheikh Hasina on 5 August 2024 in a student-led but military-backed uprising, thousands of false and fraudulent murder cases have been filed in the country. Since no accurate data has been published on these intentionally, it’s difficult to say how many cases have been filed. As per a pro- government daily, for example, the Daily Star, a leading English daily, a total of 26,268 cases involving 1,94,000 persons mostly supporters of the past government have been filed after 5 August till last October, 2024. And such filing is still continuing. It also gave a detailed narrative about many false cases. In a few cases, murder cases were filed against dead people, died a few years ago and also against the Bangladeshis that are living abroad for years. However, as per other media reports a total of 30,000 cases have been filed against nearly 300,000 persons. Nearly 310 cases alone have been filed against the deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of which 276 are murder cases.
Most of these cases are false and submitted out of vengeance and political motivation in order to extort money. In most of the cases the accusers or the complainants have no idea against whom they have filed the cases. They only signed a document prepared by political activists and their lawyers either to extort money or to harass or politically embarrass a rival. The nation’s top police officer, the IGP Bahrul Alam mentioned that in a murder case where 2/3 should be the accused, in many cases, they put up nearly 300/400 people as murderers. The interim government’s top Security Advisor Lt. Gen.(Retd) Alam Chowdhury knows it well also. The nation’s Chief Justice, time and again, although mentioned of it and advised not to file false cases but it’s continuing without any break. He failed to take any corrective action yet other than lip service. The reason may be many.
One main reason is, in a false case, the lawyers, the accusers, the police and even the legal assistants and reportedly in many cases the judges — all share the booty of extortion money. For example, just to drop a name from a case, depending on your status, one has to pay 50,000 to 50,00 000 taka for each name dropping. It’s the most lucrative business in the town since Dr. Muhammad Yunus, a Nobel Laureate took over the government.
As per reports since Dr. Yunus assumed the leadership of the government, 2010 attacks in 45 districts took place against minorities and 23 Hindus were killed, 152 Hindu temples desecrated, 45 sufi mazars destroyed, hundred graveyards destroyed, ISKON religious leader Chinmoy Krishna Das detained and demand was made to ban ISKON in Bangladesh, and many women were lynched for not wearing hijab. However, the government’s Press Secretary to the Chief Adviser stated that the government filed 88 cases and arrested 70 people on minority issue. He also mentioned that since minority people were mostly supporters of Sheikh Hasina government, therefore, their establishments were attacked. In fact, thousands of private houses and businesses of the past government supporters have been looted, vandalized, burned down and bulldozed including the historic 32 Dhanmondi, the private residence of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s house, the symbol of the independence of Bangladesh. Few years ago, his daughters donated it to the government as a national museum.
During the uprising, as per the Prothom-Alo, a pro-government leading daily, a total of 328 people were killed and after 5 August to 8 August, another 232 killed totalling 560 killed. However, the interim government Health Advisor declared that 844 died and 13,258 were injured during the July-August uprising. However, Dr. Yunus mentioned 1500 died and the UNHRC in its initial report mentioned of 650 killed but after meeting Dr. Yunus and his crooked up narrative their report basically flashed his narrative. The UNHRC report appears to be biased as it never consulted any witnesses or victims since the uprising other than government officials and their supporters. UNHRC High Commissioner listened to a few narratives of Dr. Yunus and his investigation team interviewed none of the past government officials as they were hiding or absconding. No attempt was made to reach out to them either. It is sad that this report, therefore, is not very objective. It is a one-sided report. It also failed to report how many died from 16 July to 5 August and how many died from 5 August to 15 August, 2024. The UNHRC may initiate a new investigation as this report is weak and not factual.
When we count the number of deaths as reported in the dailies each day from July 15 to August 15, 2024 we get a different picture. They could collect information from a number of sources instead of only the government sources. The UNHRC could follow the same daily counts instead of hearsay stories. Secondly, the UNHRC failed to provide any rationale as to why the government security forces would kill kids and children even inside their homes. Neither, it mentioned how many were killed by police bullets and how many by bullets other than that of the police. First Home Adviser of the Interim government Brig. Gen.(Retd) Shakawat Hossain disclosed to the media that many were killed by 7.62 bullets never used by the Bangladesh police or any security forces of Bangladesh. The UNHRC report ignored any mention of it. It may be mentioned that the government of Bangladesh allowed the Western agencies at their request to fly their foreign aircraft carriers either to bring or send their essential items plus personnel to Bangladesh without any inspection by government agencies during Covid-19 as they did not like to go through the COVID regulations. They can park their vehicle near the carrier and takeoff. When they brought loads of cargoes from abroad, none was inspected in good faith agreement . There is apprehension now that those privileges might have been abused to bring sophisticated bullets.
If any reform is needed, it should start from the Bangladesh judiciary. The system is so crooked that nearly 4.2 million cases are pending for years and hardly any one gets justice in Bangladesh.
To help improve the credibility of the Bangladesh judiciary, dropping of 1,214 or 16,429 ghost cases as the Interim government Legal Advisor mentioned is not enough, rather he should also drop and dismiss all those 30,000 “ghost” or false cases involving nearly 300,000 people. Unless such is done, the judicial system in Bangladesh cannot be fair and trustworthy.