Rifat Murder: Were police sleeping?

The High Court yesterday observed that Barguna’s Rifat Sharif would not have been murdered had the police been alert.

Were the police sleeping during the incident? asked the HC bench of Justice FRM Nazmul Ahasan and Justice KM Kamrul Kader.

The bench asked the question during the hearing of a writ petition seeking its directive on the government to transfer the Rifat murder case to the Criminal Investigation Department or the Police Bureau of Investigation for proper probe.

The HC also asked Deputy Attorney General Abdullah-Al Mahmud Bashar to communicate with the local administration so that they take proper steps against the real culprits and do not become more enthusiastic about Rifat’s wife Aysha Siddika Minni.

The court, however, rejected the writ petition saying that it would not interfere in the case at this stage as the investigation was going on.

Writ petitioner Advocate Eunus Ali Akond has no locus standi (right) for moving the petition as he is not aggrieved by the killing of Rifat, the HC said.

Minni or her father might file the writ petition as they are aggrieved by the incident, the court said.

At one stage of the hearing, Eunus expressed reluctance to move the petition before the court yesterday.

On July 25, Eunus submitted the petition requesting the HC to cancel the remand order against Minni and take steps so that her court statement in connection with the case is nullified. The petition also sought Minni’s immediate release.

In the petition, he also appealed for ordering the government to form a judicial inquiry committee to probe the killing of Sabbir Hossain Nayan alias Nayan Bond, the prime accused in the case, in a “gunfight” with the law enforcers on July 2.

On June 26, Rifat, a 25-year-old internet service provider, was hacked to death in broad daylight in Barguna town.

In a footage of the incident that went viral on social media, Minni was seen screaming and trying to save her husband from the assailants.

Minni was first named as a witness in the case; police later showed her as an accused. They claim that they found her involvement in the murder during probe.