Take action against 31 illegal brick kilns: HC to cops

The High Court (HC) today directed the police to immediately initiate case proceedings against owners of 31 illegal brick kilns for making fake orders of the court.

The court also ordered the law enforcers to investigate into the incident of forgery.

The court ordered the head of Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to supervise the investigation and to provide necessary assistance to this effect.

The law enforcers were directed to submit progress reports of the probe to this court by June 25, Deputy Attorney General (DAG) Md Al-Amin Sarker told The Daily Star.  

The HC bench of Justice MdAshfaqul IslamandJustice Mohammad Ali came up with the order while hearing two writ petitions filed in 2017 and 2018 in this regard.

It also fixed June 25 for passing further order on this issue.

Police today produced the owners of 31 illegal brick kilns situated at Rangpur, Dinajpur and Nilphamarito the HC bench as per its April 30 order.

DAG Al-Amin said the deputy commissioner of Dinajpur have handed over two “forged” HC orders issued in 2017 and 2018 to the attorney general’s office in April this year in which the HC asked local administration not to interfere in functioning of the brick kilns. 

In the “forged” orders, names of the judges of this bench and the DAG were mentioned, he said, adding that he could not understand that the orders were forged.

“I submit the orders to the High Court bench in April this year for disposal of two separate writ petitions filed in 2017 and 2018 regarding the functions of the brick fields. Out of suspicion, the High Court bench ordered the court officials to examine whether this court has passed such any order. The High Court officials then submitted a probe report to this bench saying that this court has not pass such order in favour of the brick kiln owners,” he said.

After receiving the report from the HC officials, the HC bench on April 30 ordered the owners to appear before the court on May 16 and the superintendents of police of Rangpur, Dinajpur, and Nilphamari to ensure their presence before it.

As the HC order was not communicated to the officers of the SPs, the HC bench of May 16 asked them to produce them to the court today, DAG Al-Amin said adding that the local administrations have already stopped the functions of the illegal brick kilns.         

Advocate M Yusuf Hossain Humayun and Advocate AJ Mohammad Ali appeared for the brick kiln owners.