SC for considering victims' feelings

The High Court should consider the feelings of vandalism and arson victims in granting bail to accused, the Supreme Court said yesterday.

Vandalism and arson attacks, carried out in the country in recent months, were inhuman and unprecedented, observed the court while hearing a review petition filed by the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA).

The lawyers' platform sought review of the SC's guideline for the HC in granting anticipatory bail to accused.

The five-member bench of the Appellate Division, led by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha, yesterday dismissed the review petition saying that its directives on granting anticipatory bail to accused might have been different had such subversive activities taken place before issuance of the directives.

The other members of the bench were Justice Nazmun Ara Sultana, Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain, Justice Hasan Foez Siddique and Justice AHM Shamsuddin Choudhury Manik.

The SC said police members should not be made accused outright of committing such offences, since they were working for protecting peace and law and order in the country.

Placing his arguments before the court, petitioner's lawyer Moudud Ahmed said the apex court might permit the HC to grant anticipatory bail in some particular cases.

The SC said the accused should first go to the lower court for getting bail as per rules. There are precedents for the High Court granting anticipatory bail to around 100 people in a minute, added the court.

At least 95 people were killed and 1,417 injured in violence and arson attacks during hartals and blockades enforced by the BNP-led 20-party alliance early this year. 

The SC yesterday said if the accused are granted anticipatory bail, they could not be placed on remand and information about the incidents would remain undisclosed.

Remanding an accused for interrogation is part of the investigation. The law enforcers came under attack and were injured in subversive activities, but they did not open fire on criminals in self-defence, added the court.

Nowadays, police don't torture the accused during interrogation on remand for fear of law, the SC said.

It asked Moudud, also a BNP standing committee member, whether the victims would accept the accused granted anticipatory bail without being interrogated by cops.        

The lawyer said the HC was not hearing many anticipatory bail petitions after the declaration of the guideline by the SC.              

Attorney General Mahbubey Alam opposed the review petition on grounds that the SCBA had no right to move such a petition since it was not aggrieved by the SC verdict.     

The incumbent SCBA is dominated by pro-BNP lawyers.

SC GUIDELINE

The Appellate Division on February 24 last year expressed disappointment at an HC bench for “failure to follow its guideline” while granting anticipatory bail to BNP leader Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain in a money laundering case.

It said the HC should scrutinise the First Information Report with “expected diligence”, and would not grant anticipatory bail “where the allegations are of heinous nature”.

If satisfied in all respects, the HC will dispose of anticipatory bail petitions instantly without issuing any rule, and will not grant such type of bail to an accused for more than four weeks, the SC judgment said. “Anticipatory bail shall not survive post-charge sheet stage.”

The HC judges will mention the reasons for granting anticipatory bail to an accused and “shall give reasons for their satisfaction on this unraveling point,” said the apex court.

“Political threshold of the [bail] petitioner or claimed rivalry, by itself, without further ado, shall not be a ground for entertaining an application”.

If an allegation of bias is aired against a particular magistrate or a group of magistrates or judges, cause of suspicion must be specifically spelt out, said the Appellate Division.

In the review petition filed on June 18 last year, the SCBA said the HC is now reluctant to hear anticipatory bail petitions, and as a result, some innocent litigants were being made victims of police harassment.

Meanwhile, an HC bench yesterday granted anticipatory bail for four weeks to BNP leaders MK Anwar, Tariqul Islam, Abdul Awal Mintoo and Amanullah Aman in 56 arson and vandalism cases.