The Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs has revoked the appointments of two assistant public prosecutors (APPs) at the Cumilla District and Sessions Judge’s Court, advocate Monir Hossain Patwary and advocate Saidul Islam. The information was conveyed in a letter signed by the ministry’s senior assistant secretary (GP-PP), Md. Faruk Hossain, on Thursday.
Copies of the letter were sent to the district magistrate, the district and sessions judge, the public prosecutor and other relevant offices. It also directed that the order be published on the Law and Justice Division’s website.
The order said the appointments, made through a memorandum issued on October 29, 2024, were being cancelled as directed. The letter gave no specific reason for the revocation.
The two lawyers had spoken to the media on Tuesday about Jisan, a Shibir leader from Cumilla who was arrested in a rape case.
That afternoon, Jisan was produced before the court of Senior Judicial Magistrate Taiyab Uddin of the No. 3 Amli Court in Cumilla. The magistrate rejected his bail and ordered him sent to jail. At the court premises, APP Monir Hossain Patwary told reporters: “From the start the police have been playing hide-and-seek with the case. The police took Jisan to jail without giving lawyers a chance to sign the power of attorney needed to conduct the hearing. The rape allegation is not correct. We have applied to the court for Jisan’s proper medical treatment.”
The other APP, Saidul Islam, made similar remarks.
Advocate Monir Hossain Patwary told Samakal: “Most APPs conduct all kinds of cases for the defence outside their own court. There is proof of this. We two APPs did not have to sign a power of attorney for the accused. Jisan’s brother, advocate Rasel Ahmed, signed the power of attorney on his behalf. We only briefed reporters in front of the court on the accused’s behalf. But whether our appointments were revoked for this reason is not clearly stated in the letter.”
Cumilla court’s public prosecutor (PP), advocate Kaimul Haque Rinku, told Samakal: “What we PPs and APPs can and cannot do is set out in the rules. APPs are not allowed to make statements in any case against the government.”
According to the complaint, Jisan had a romantic relationship with a widow he had met through Facebook. Police said that after the woman became pregnant, Jisan forced her to have an abortion. When she later pressed him to marry her, he promised on June 12 to do so but went into hiding on the night of June 11. The next night he was found unconscious near the Laksam railway junction in the district. That night the woman filed a case against Jisan on charges of rape and forced termination of pregnancy. Three other people were named as accused for allegedly aiding the rape.
After Jisan was shown arrested in the case, he was kept under police guard while receiving hospital treatment. On June 16, the magistrate ordered him sent to jail through the court.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report