Filing 92 cases in the last 10 years against BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir are not only unusual but also unprecedented. The police took Mirza Fakhrul Islam from his Uttara home to the office of detective branch of police around 3:00am on 8 December. The DB officials first said Mirza Fakhrul and the party standing committee member Mirza Abbas were brought to the DB office for questioning regarding the clash between police and party leaders and activists in front of the BNP office on 7 December and about the venue of the BNP rally scheduled for 10 December (which had not yet been decided at the time).
Police initially did not mention any cases filed against them. But in the afternoon on that day, it was reported that a case had been filed against two BNP leaders including the secretary general for inciting the conflict on 7 December. Their bail pleas were rejected three times in the CMM court and the metropolitan court later on.
According to lawyers and family, 92 cases have been filed against Mirza Fakhrul in the last 10 years. He has to go to court in Dhaka to attend the cases every month. He appeared in the Dhaka court for two such cases on 8 December. He had to go to jail for this at least five times. He has served 350 days in jail since 2012.
Among the 92 cases filed against Mirza Fakhrul, 20 to 25 cases are now active. In most of the remaining cases, the trial proceedings have been stayed by the High Court orders. He has also been acquitted of some cases by court orders. Mirza Fakhrul was acquitted of a case filed at Hatirjheel police station on charges of sabotage. Such case is known as 'fictitious case'. A case filed on the ground of such an incident which did not happen is known as fictitious case.
Zainul Abedin, Mirza Fakhrul's lawyer and former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, told Prothom Alo that the government filed one after another false case against him to harass him politically. Police arrested him in the case filed with the Paltan police station to keep him away from politics. On the other hand, chief public prosecutor (PP) of Dhaka Metropolitan Court, Abdullah Abu, claimed that the sabotage in Paltan incident was evident.
In the clash in front of BNP office, several accused including Amanullah Aman got bail. On the other hand, despite the fact that Mirza Fakhrul's name was not mentioned in the statement, his bail application was rejected thrice. According to Section 497 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, aged and sick persons are entitled to bail.
The court will decide if Mirza Fakhrul was involved in these incidents or not. He deserves bail in the latest case in which the police arrested him. Firstly, he is an elderly person and there is no evidence that he has ever been involved in terrorist activities.
He is not only the general secretary of a major political party but also known as a decent politician. PP's argument that if he gets bail in the case, the trial will be disrupted, is completely unwarranted. He has been attending court regularly in all previous cases as he respects the law till his arrest. Depriving a senior politician of bail would force people to believe that the case was filed for inflicting political harassment.