HC clears way for DMP to collect residents' info

The High Court today cleared the way for Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) to collect information from the residents of DMP area.
The HC bench of Justice Moyeenul Islam Chowdhury and Justice Md Iqbal Kabir passed the rejection order saying that the DMP can take any step under the DMP Rules, 2006 to prevent any terrorist activity in the city.
Petitioner’s lawyer Jotirmoy Barua told The Daily Star that he will move an appeal before the Supreme Court against the HC order.
Earlier on March 8, the HC fixed today (March 13) for passing an order on the writ petition.
Jotirmoy submitted the petition on March 3 to the HC praying to it to ask the authorities concerned to preserve those information which have already been collected and not to use the information until a specific law is formulated to this effect.
He said there is no legal basis of collecting such information about tenants from their landlords, terming it a "violation" of rights to privacy.
The DMP on February 29 announced that it had been collecting “identification information” about landlords and tenants since November last year and asked all to provide the information by March 15.