The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court has observed that the High Court Division as a revisional court ought to have disposed of the criminal revision on the basis of the evidence already on record.
A four-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Hasan Foez Siddique passed the observation while delivering a verdict upon hearing a leave to appeal petition, filed by former Khilgaon Police Station officer-in-charge Helal Uddin against a High Court order.
The Apex Court at the same time rejected and criticized the High Court verdict that directed the Fifth Metropolitan Sessions Judge Court in Dhaka to hold a fresh hearing on the appeal by Helal Uddin against his three-year sentence handed down by a magistrate’s court for torturing Dhaka University student Abdul Kader in custody in 2011.
Apex court said, “The order of rehearing by the appellate court below is found to be uncalled for, particularly after a decade.”
Helal in his appeal prayed for scrapping his three-year jail term upheld by the Fifth Metropolitan Sessions Judge Court in Dhaka on July 27, 2016.
The High Court in its verdict had said from close scrutiny it appears that the learned appellate court below ought to scrutinize the findings of the trial court and on record but failed to exhaust all processes to scrutinise the vital witnesses, alamo and medical evidence.
Both the trial court and the appellate court put much reliance on the issue of causing injury by chapati which was allegedly used to injure the victim, further said the High Court verdict.
Helal was jailed for three years for torturing innocent Abdul Kader with machetes terming him as a criminal. Kader filed a case against OC Helal with the Khilgaon Police Station on the order from the High Court.
In the early hours of July 16, 2011, Kader was returning on foot to his university hall from the residence of his aunt at the doctors’ quarter at Holy Family Hospital.
Kader stated in the case that some plainclothes police personnel approached Kader, detained him and kicked him when he was near the Anti-Corruption Commission headquarters at Segunbagicha.
The police took Kader to the Khilgaon Police Station even though he identified himself as a Dhaka University student.
On the morning of July 16, 2011, Kader was taken before the then OC Helal Uddin to extract from him a false confessional statement.
As Kader refused to make such a statement, OC Helal beat him up, causing serious injuries in his leg, backbone and other parts of his body. OC Helal then hit Kader with a chapati under the left knee and maimed him, said the verdict.
Later, Kader moved the High Court which asked the Khilgaon Police Station to record two cases against OC Helal, one of which was filed under the Arms Act and the other under the Penal Code for torture.
On May 17, 2015, the Court of Dhaka Second Chief Metropolitan Magistrate sentenced Helal to three-year jail term with a fine of Tk 10,000 for torturing innocent Kader. OC Helal had pleaded innocent stating that Kader was mass-beaten.
Later the Fifth Metropolitan Sessions Judge Court in Dhaka on July 27, 2016 disallowed the appeal filed by Helal Uddin seeking scrapping his three-year jail term. He then moved the HC and the HC on April 12 in 2018 sent the appeal for re-hearing to the Appellate Court below.
Feeling aggrieved, the convict-accused preferred criminal petition for leave to appeal under with the Appellate Division. The Apex Court asked the High Court to hear the revision afresh. A single-judge HC bench of Justice Fatema Najib was directed to dispose of Helal’s revision within six months.
