Nusraat Faria's arrest sends the wrong signal

After the shocking news of popular actor Nusraat Faria being arrested at Dhaka airport in an attempted murder case and sent to jail, she finally got bail on Tuesday.

The incident has been especially jarring even in this current environment where arbitrary murder cases have been filed against hundreds of individuals thought to be sympathisers of the AL regime.

Nusraat Faria has been accused in 'an attempt to murder' case along with 265 other people, 17 of them actors. The victim, who filed the case, suffered bullet injuries on July 19 during the student-led uprising.

How believable is this accusation—that Nusraat was somehow involved in causing the bullet injuries of a man in the Bhatara area?

Apparently, the allegations against Nusraat, and the other 264 accused, include financing the Awami League during the quota reform protests. First of all, what does this mean? Did they pay money to the AL regime to help them shoot down protesters? Does this not sound illogical if not ludicrous?

If any of the accused have had underhand deals with the AL regime that benefitted them financially then they should be accused of corruption and cases can be filed on that basis. But to file cases against hundreds of individuals whose links to the killings of protesters are downright flimsy leads to only one conclusion—that these individuals are being harassed due to some link or the other with the AL regime or because of someone's personal grudge.

In Nusraat's case, it could be mere professional jealousy or it may be because she played Sheikh Hasina in a biopic on Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Does this mean any actor or anyone associated with this movie, can be accused of being involved in Sheikh Hasina's brutal clamp down on protesters? Will this bring justice for those killed or solace to those grieving their loved ones? Can we equate those who actually pulled the trigger and those who ordered them to do so with those who may or may not have had ties to the ousted regime?

We are here treading on a dangerous path where the legal system is being manipulated with the intention of getting revenge rather than justice. This will make the entire legal system questionable.

Now why does that ring a bell? Because it reminds us of the arbitrary cases filed against members of Jamaat and BNP by the ousted AL regime. According to BNP's case record preservation cell, 1,41,636 cases have been filed against 49,26,494 leaders and activists of the party and its affiliated organisations since 2009 till September 2023.

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Cases against BNP-Jamaat leaders: Trials now rolling well into the night

Cases that had been hanging for years were fast tracked at extraordinary speed just before the 2024 elections to make sure opposition candidates could not participate. A Daily Star report on October 23, 2023 cited a mid-level police officer present at a BNP leader's trial in August 2023 saying that the government (AL) had given clear instructions to dispose of the trials involving BNP and other opposition party leaders before the national election.

While the present circumstances are not under an autocratic regime, the feeling of unease still exists. We really don't know why or how these cases are being filed, or who will be next.

At a function commemorating National Legal Day on April 28, the law adviser agreed that lawsuits were being filed out of malicious intent, to harass people or occupy someone's property and businesses. When asked about the case filed against Iresh Zaker, he asked the journalist to expose the plaintiffs and see whether the cases were filed due to enmity or ulterior motive.

The home adviser's comments about Nusraat Faria's case was hardly reassuring: "Now, if there's a case against her, what should we do? If we let her go, then you would say, 'Sir, you spared her'."

Both the law adviser and home adviser have said that though cases have been filed (and there's really nothing they can do about that, anyone can file a case against anyone it seems) the government has instructed the law enforcement agencies to make sure no innocent person is unnecessarily harassed.

Unfortunately, these statements do not translate into ground realities. It seems arrests are made because of rivalry or revenge rather than suspicion of the crime. The scenes of a young actress, who wasn't even in the country during the July uprising and who has shown her sadness over the deaths of protesters on social media, being escorted by law enforcers to the court and jostled by the crowd, have been distressing, to say the least. Even though she has been granted bail, nothing will erase the trauma of being arrested for attempted murder and spending a night in jail. If the purpose of this ordeal was to punish her for playing the role of Sheikh Hasina in a film that is just vengeance not justice. This culture of filing arbitrary cases as a form of revenge must stop.