DISAPPEARANCE OF DR MOKHLES IGP asked to take action against 3 cops

The High Court Division on Tuesday directed the Inspector General of Police to initiate departmental action against three police officers for their refusal to record complaints relating to disappearance of homeopathic doctor Sheikh Mokhlesur Rahman from the lock up of Satkhira sadar police.
The directive requires the IGP to take action against Emdadul Huq Sheikh, a former Satkhira Sadar police station officer-in-charge, his successor Firoz Hossain Mollah and Himel Hossain a former sub-inspector of the police station.
The court also asked Jesmin Nahar, wife of Mokhles, to file general diary with the Satkhira sadar police station or a complaint case with the magistrate’s court over the alleged disappearance of her husband from the lockup of the Satkhira police station, where he had been detained.
The doctor was arrested on August 4, 2016, and he simply vanished from the lock up of the police station during his detention. 
Jasmin Nahar met her husband in the lock up for three days when she took with her, homemade food for him.
From the 4th day, she could no more meet her husband in the police station as he was not there in the lockup.
In the order, a bench of Justice Quazi Reza-Ul Hoque and Justice Mohammad Ullah directed the police to record Jesmin Nahar’s GD if she files it.
The court said it would pass further orders on February 25. 
On Tuesday, the court passed the order after hearing a probe report submitted by the Police Bureau of Investigation.
The PBI report recommended departmental action against OCs Emdadul and Firoz and SI Himel and the other police officers of the Satkhira sadar police station.
The report said that the three named officers as well as the other officers of the police station showed extreme inefficiency and gross negligence by not recording the GD or a case following complaints that 27-year old physician Mokhles allegedly became victim of enforced disappearance by law enforcement agencies or others using their names.
The PBI, however, submitted that it found no evidence in support of Jasmin Nahar’s complaint that her husband had disappeared from the lockup of the Satkhira sadar police station or that she served him with home-made food in the lock-up over three consecutive days since August 4, 2016. 
A judicial inquiry report submitted to the High Country Division earlier found prima facie evidence of involvement of the then Satkhira police superintendent Altaf Hossain, OC Emdadul, SI Himel Hossain and higher police officials with the arrest of Mokhles and his subsequent disappearance from the lockup of Satkhira police station.
The judicial inquiry was conducted by Satkhira’s senior judicial magistrate Habibullah Mahmud following orders from the same bench.
On July 16, 2017, the bench ordered a fresh probe by the PBI, calling the judicial probe report as ‘controversial’. 
At Tuesday’s hearing, the bench expressed concern over the fact that no GD or case was recorded by the police though over two years passed since the disappearance of Dr Mokhles.
What’s the responsibility the police, asked the bench if the court has to give directives to record GDs or cases over the disappearance of citizens.
The bench reprimanded the police for withdrawing Satkhira chief judicial magistrate’s gunman and holding probes against him instead of making efforts to find out Dr Mokhles as they were ordered to do.
In a writ petition Jasmin Nahar sought redress to her husband’s enforced disappearance from the police station’s lockup.
On the midnight of August 4, 2016, a police squad led by SI Himel had arrested Dr Mokhles at Satkhira New Market where he had gone to buy medicines for his father, she submitted in her writ petition. 
The judicial probe report found the authenticity in her statement.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net