Editorial
The Committee Must Act
Shima Choudhury is far from dead. She will continue stalking every conscientious soul in the country for long. The acquittal of four policemen charged with raping her has indeed lent her a fresh lease of life. Propped up by the trying judge's categorical assertion that the prosecution, the government that is, presented the case in a manner making conviction impossible, the Home Minister in an unprecedented action, has ordered an investigation into the prosecution team's doings besides preferring an appeal to the higher court against the acquittal. The Home Minister's prompt reaction has brought to the fore the question of the Parliamentary Committee constituted five months ago to investigate the Shima affair and report to the Jatiya Sangsad. How did the acquittal - the judgement made that good by convicting the government - affect the committee and its members? One expected them to match the Home Minister's response. The committee must realise that the court outcome has thrown the case right into their lap and the whole nation is eagerly waiting for what findings they come up with. The nation is now waiting for parliamentary action in the matter. The Parliamentary Committee must act and act soon so that there is no need to again make excuses of proofs being all lost with lapse of time. Failure in this will certainly undermine the cause of justice and the building of a just society. That is a long process. What is of immediate concern, both for the society and particularly for the government, is that the parliamentary committee's failure to deliver will hurt the government beyond easy recovery. Nobody ever thought, after what happened in the wake of the Yasmin case, policemen in uniform would ever again fancy molesting a woman and try to cover up the crime. That expectation was soon belied. But Shima's is the first case after Yasmin's of organised cover-up by police. This has severely harmed the Home Minister's personal jihad against crime in which police is his main weapon. If police does not mend its ways, of its own - the Home Minister, nay, the whole government should be able to launch a thorough overhaul of this erratic machine.
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