Editorial

Three-year-old accused for murder!

How can we make such a farce of our judicial system?
A three-year-old baby boy, Iman Ali, was made an accused in a murder case and on being brought to court last Tuesday was granted bail upon a bond of Tk. 5,000 as the prosecution very kindly did not oppose it. Of the many bizarre things that happen in our country accusing and then granting bail to a three year old should feature among the very top.

It happened because a complainant implicated the three-year old while filing a murder charge with the Sutrapur police station in the city. The question we would like to ask is how could the police accept such a complaint even if some one made such a charge. On the very face of it, it is clear that Iman Ali was implicated simply to harass the family. Doesn't our police have that simple common sense that a three year old cannot possibly commit murder? To accept the compliant, and then to process all the necessary papers and then to bring him to court the Sutrapur police had to do a lot of paper work on this boy. Wasn't there any senior officer in the whole station to prevent such an abuse of law when the whole process was taking place?

Our second question is to the Honourable judge who granted him bail. Couldn't he have seen through it all and dismissed the charge against the three year old. Why didn't he question the police about it and punish them for this harassment of an innocent child. We know justice is blind but does it have to be so blind that it does not see when the judicial system is being made a mockery of.

We commend the law minister for seeing the news in the media and being proactive enough so as to question the IG and ask for the suspension of the involved policemen. This boy's life would have been forever ruined but for the media coverage. We now ask the minister to go further and have the boy saved from further harassment. The law should also be amended in a way that such absurdity does not recur in future.