Children jailed in Ctg after police allegedly ‘exaggerate' age

Two teenagers have been sentenced to 15 days in jail although birth certificates later showed that both are under 18, triggering allegations that police had 'increased' their ages to bypass child protection laws, denying their access to the juvenile justice system.

A team from Bostami Police Station in Chattogram detained the teenagers on January 9, 2026, after recovering an electric taser gun from one of them.

Police listed both as 18-year-olds in court documents, but birth certificates later submitted show that one is 15 years and 11 months old, while the other is 17 years and three months old.

Among the convicts are an SSC (Dakhil) examinee of Mohammadia Hafezul Ulum Dakhil Madrasa in Bayezid Bostami and a former student of the same madrasa.

Metropolitan Magistrate Fahmida Sattar sentenced them to 15 days in jail on January 10 under Section 88(a) of the Metropolitan Police Act.

Advocate Sowrav Chowdhury, representing the two at the court, said: "According to the law, both are children (under 18). Police exaggerated their ages, portrayed them as street boys, and produced them before a magistrate's court, which then sentenced them to 15 days in jail ."

According to the law, children in conflict with the law must be tried in a juvenile court. Instead, they were sent to jail Chattogram Central Jail, he said.

“They have been staying in jail with criminals and convicts for three days, which is completely contrary to the law," the lawyers said yesterday.

Yesterday, after presenting age-related documents and other information, the lawyer filed a petition before the court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Mahidul Islam seeking their release on probation with the sentence stayed.

The court has rejected two applications filed for their bail and release on probation.

Aked how the children were shown as 18-year-old before the court, Sub-inspector Shahidul Islam of Bayezid Bostami Police Station told The Daily Star that due to their suspicious movement, police searched them and found an electric shock device (taser gun) from one of them. Later, they were brought to the police station.

“During interrogation, they mentioned their age as 18. We informed their families and asked for proof before writing, but no documents were produced that day,” the SI said.

“The following day, we forwarded them to court under Section 88,” SI Shahidul said.

“There was no negligence on the part of the police. We recorded the age they told us," He claimed.

However, the families disputed the SI’s statement. Mother of one of the convicts said, "We told the police that my son is 16 years old and is a Dakhil examinee this year. But the police did not consider it and sent him to court, showing his age as 18."

Advocate Zia Ahsan Habib, secretary general of the Bangladesh Human Rights Foundation, said, "The law clearly states that once a person is identified as a child by age, they must be produced before a juvenile court. Under no circumstances should they be tried in a magistrate's court."

"The greater responsibility lies with the police. They inflated the ages at the very beginning so that the children would not receive the protections of the Child Act," he said.

“Now that the issue has been raised in court and the children have not been released, it indicates serious misinterpretation or misrepresentation. The matter should be taken immediately to the Metropolitan Sessions Judge’s Court,” he added.

Attempts to contact Bayezid Bostami Police Station Officer-in-Charge (OC) Jahidul Islam for comment, but he did not pick up the phone call.