Five jailed for court order forgery

A Dhaka court yesterday sentenced five people, including a bench assistant (peshkar) of another court, to 14 years' imprisonment each for issuing fake bail orders forging signature of a judge of the latter court.

In 2015, the case was filed against them in connection with releasing 106 accused in 76 criminal cases by the fake bail orders through forging signature of a judge of the Second Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court of Dhaka.   

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The court also questioned the role of Assistant Director of the Anti-Corruption Commission Mohammad Shafiullah for his gross negligence and indifference in discharging his duties to find out the clues about the incident.

Judge Md Akhtaruzzaman of the Special Judge Court-5 handed down the verdict in presence of three convicts -- Bench Assistant Moslehuddin Bhuiyan, peon Sheikh Mohammad Naim and muster-roll clerk Mohammad Ismail Hossain.

All the convicts are staff of the Second Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court. Of them, muster-roll clerks Alamgir Hossain and Jahangir Hossain are absconding.

The court also fined each of them Tk 20,000, in default of which they will suffer two months more in jail.

Each of the convicts will have to serve seven years in jail of the 14 years of prison sentences, as the punishment for the offences -- one for the forgery of record and the other for making fake documents -- would be concurrent.

In the judgment, the judge observed that the main duty of ACC official Shafiullah, who investigated the case, was to find out those involved in forging the bail orders and bring the offences committed by the culprits before the common people. But he did not do it intentionally.  

Moreover, he did not include some important persons, including another Bench Assistant Nure Alam of the Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court of Dhaka, as witnesses in the charge sheet.

"If such an investigation officer like Shafiullah is working in the ACC as an investigator, the image of that organisation must be questionable,” the judge observed.

He also ordered to send a copy of the judgment to the ACC chairman for taking legal action against Shafiullah. 

The judge also said Moslehuddin and Naim as government employees did not discharge their duties, adding that, they in collusion with three muster-roll clerks committed the offences.

So, if the example is not set by awarding them maximum punishment, other officials and employees will be encouraged to commit such crimes.

The court also observed that by giving exemplary punishment to the accused, the prestige and image of the judiciary could be upheld and people's faith in the judiciary could be kept intact, the judge added.       

According to the case documents, 106 accused in 76 criminal cases, now pending with Dhaka Second Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court, were released from prison in five months following the fake bail orders made by Moslehuddin and Naim.

Of the 106 accused, fourteen in 14 cases were released from jail in January, 20 accused in 10 cases in February, 20 accused in 14 cases in March, 16 accused in 12 cases in April and 40 accused in 26 cases in May 2015 through the fake bail orders.

As the 106 accused managed to come out of prison, they never appeared before the court and were hiding with arrest warrants against them, Mahmud Hossain Jahangir, public prosecutor of the bail forgery case, told The Daily Star yesterday.

On July 12 in 2015, Obaidul Karim Akando, an official of the Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court, lodged a case with Kotwali police against the two court staff -- Moslehuddin and Naim.

Hours after filing of the case, police arrested Moslehuddin on the court premises, but Naim managed to flee.

On August 23, Rapid Action Battalion arrested Naim in the capital's Adabar area.

Later, police held muster-roll clerk Ismail. Naim and Ismail gave confessional statements before magistrates on different dates.

On March 15 last year, the ACC pressed charges against the five.