Lohagara UNO, cops apologise for jailing man in custody

Lohagara Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO), Chittagong, and three police officers today offered unconditional apology for passing imprisonment order of a man who was already in custody in October last.

UNO Md Mahbub Alam, Lohagara Police Station Officer-in-Charge Md Shahjahan and Sub-Inspectors Helal Khan and Wasim appeared before the court and offered the apology in swearing affidavit.

Accepting their apology, the High Court bench of Justice Syed Muhammad Dastagir Husain and Justice Md Ataur Rahman Khan exempted them from personal appearance before this court in this connection.

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The court, however, directed the government to transfer OC Shahjahan to any other police station.

On October 14, a mobile court of UNO Mahbub sentenced Md Belal Uddin of Lohagara upazila to eight months' imprisonment on charge of possessing some cannabis in violation of law.

Following a writ petition filed by Belal, the HC on January 14 summoned the UNO, OC Shahjahan and sub-inspectors Helal and Wasim to explain yesterday their conducts.

The HC also issued a rule asking the respondents to explain why the jail sentence should not be scrapped and why legal action should not be taken against the officials responsible for sentencing him.

The writ petition says, police arrested his client on October 13 last year in a criminal case and produced him before the court on October 14.

However, a mobile court led by the Lohagara UNO sentenced Belal to eight months on October 14 on charge of possessing some cannabis, according to the statement of the mobile court order.