Plaintiff needs NID for lodging case or complaint: HC
From now on, plaintiff will have to add the National Identity Card (NID) number while filing a case or complain at the police station or the court.
If necessary, they will have to submit the NID’s photocopy.
A virtual High Court (HC) bench—comprising of justice M Enayetur Rahim and justice Md Mustafizur Rahman—issued this ruling on Monday following a writ hearing.
Businessman Ekramul Ahsan (55), a resident of capital’s Shantibag, languished in jail for four years (1465 days) in 20 lawsuits filed in 13 different districts on charges of raping, beating, cheating and human trafficking.
Terming these cases as ‘fictitious’, the businessman—also the owner of Anwar Dying and Printing at Kutubpur in Narayanganj—filed a writ petition with the High Court on 7 June seeking an order to conduct investigation to trace the whereabouts of the plaintiffs of the cases.
Senior lawyer Joynul Abedin and lawyer Amadul Haque appeared in the hearing for the writ petition while deputy attorney generals Bipul Bagmar and Arvind Kumar Roy took part to defend the state.
Following the hearing, the High Court has ordered the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of police to find out the responsible persons behind these cases and asked them to submit the report to the court within 60 days.
The HC ruling has also asked to explain as to why the direction will not be given to take legal action against the persons involved.
Lawyer Emadul Haque said 49 cases were filed against Ekramul in 13 districts on charges of beating, cheating, throwing acid, human trafficking, raping, theft and violence against women.
He told Prothom Alo that no plaintiff was found yet in some of these cases while the witnesses of some were absent in the court. In this regard, Ekramul has already been acquitted by the lower court in 36 cases. The remaining 13 cases are pending.
He has been languishing in prison for 1,465 days in 20 out of 49 cases. The writ petition said it is a gross violation of personal liberty to keep a person in jail on charges of ‘fake’ lawsuits, the lawyer added.
According to this lawyer, businessman Ekramul was arrested on 17 November 2011 on charges of beating in Narayanganj. Following this, cases kept fling against him one after another in 13 districts.
Once he was released on bail, later he had to go to jail again in another case. Finally, Ekramul was released on bail on 25 February last year in a case of human trafficking in Chandpur.