District judge to face music

The law ministry has moved to take disciplinary action against the Chandpur district and sessions judge after a judicial probe found the allegation of misconduct against him to be true.

The ministry has already completed the process of issuing a government order for filing a departmental case against Judge Md Mafizul Islam, who exempted two accused from a murder case after being allegedly contacted by one of them over his cell phone, said an official of the ministry.

The order is likely to be issued within this week, said the official seeking anonymity.

In July, the Supreme Court authorities asked the law ministry to initiate the process of filing a departmental case against Mafizul upon receiving the report of the judicial enquiry by Administrative Tribunal Member AR Masud.

The SC asked the ministry to appoint Chittagong District Judge Nurul Huda as the investigation officer, SC Registrar General Syed Aminul Islam told this correspondent yesterday.

He said the SC authorities would decide the next course of action after getting the probe report.

Contacted, Law Minister Anisul Huq said his ministry had already taken steps in line with the SC authorities' suggestions.

On May 31, Tawfiq Azim Mishu, plaintiff of a case filed over the murder of his uncle Liakat Ullah in 2012, lodged a complaint with Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha.

Tawfiq alleged that Mohammad Ehsan, an accused in the case, contacted Judge Mafizul over his cell phone 22 times between March 17 and April 15 this year.

Ehsan and his father Main Uddin Hossain Tunu, the main accused, were exempted from the case on April 8 around two years after the IO of the case submitted to a magistrate court the charge sheet against 19 people, including the two, he said.

Upon receiving the complaint, the CJ on June 4 appointed Masud to look into the allegation and asked him to submit a report to the CJ office.