Chattogram Bureau: Dhaka, Aug-16,
The High Court on
Monday summoned two investigating officers in Chattogram to appear before it on
September 1 in connection with the imprisonment of Minu Akhter and subsequent
death in a road accident.
The HC bench of Justice
Jahangir Hossain and Justice Md Atoar Rahman asked the two IOs—sub-inspector of
Kotwali Police Station Zubaiyer Mridha and sub-inspector of Bayezid Bostami
Police Station Khorshed Alam—to appear before the court with the case
documents, including post-mortem report
of Minu’s death and her confessional statement on how she went to jail instead
of another woman Kulsum Akter in a murder case.
Advocate Mohammad
Shishir Monir filed a petition seeking inquiry about the death of Minu 12 days after she was released from jail.
Deputy Attorney General
Mohammad Sarwar Hossain represented the state.
Advocate Shishir said
“Minu Akhter spent three years in jail for a crime she did not commit and she
died in a road accident after 12 days of getting released from jail. The death
of Minu should be brought under scrutiny.”
It was Kulsum who was
sentenced to life in a murder case. But Minu, a poor woman, impersonated as
Kulsum and went to jail for money given by the actual convict.
Minu was freed on June
16 this year three years into the sentence after her case was brought to the
High Coiurt.
Besides, the court
ordered the special public prosecutor of Chattogram Women and Children
Repression Prevention Tribunal-2 MA Naser and junior lawyers Nurul Anwar and
Bibekananda Chowdhury and clerk Showrabh to submit written explanations about
their role in the fraudulent act within two weeks.
In October 2007, Kulsum
was arrested in a case filed over a garment worker’s murder in 2006.
Two years later she was
freed after being granted bail by a Chattogram court.
On November 30, 2017
Chattogram fourth additional metropolitan session court found Kulsum guilty and
sentenced her to life in prison, besides asking her to pay a fine of TK 50,000.
On June 12, 2018 Minu,
pretending to be Kulsum, surrendered to police and began spending time behind
bars. According to case proceedings, she did it for money.
In 2019 advocate Iqbal
Hossain filed a petition on the sentence passed by the lower court on behalf of
Minu, pretending to be Kulsum.
Following which the
case document was sent to the High Court on June 12 the same year.
On March 18 this year,
senior jail super of Chattogram central jail Md. Safiqul Islam Khan noticed the
issue of fraudulence and brought the matter to Chattogram court’s notice.
Following the court’s
order Minu was brought before court on March 22.
In the court Minu said,
“Three years back a woman named Morzina, promising to give me some rice, sent
me to jail and said after Ramadan she will bring me out.”
Later a sub-document of
the case was sent to the high court and advocate Shishir Munir presented it
before court.
The accused of the case
Kulsum was a housewife living in Rahmatganj under Kotwali police station with
her husband.
Minu used to live in a
slum in the city with her three children before ending up in jail as Kulsum.
On June 28, Minu Akter
died in a road crash on the city's Bayezid link road.
Unable to identify the
body, Anjuman Mufidul Islam, a welfare organization buried her body as an
unclaimed one.
Officer-in-Charge of
Bayezid Bostami police station Md Kamruzzaman said an unidentified body of a woman
was recovered from the road and later buried by Anjuman Mufidul Islam.
Later, Minu’s brother
Rubel identified the body as his sister's when a police team went to Sitakundu
and showed him a photo.
On July 4, police filed
a case with Bayezid Bostami Police Station in this connection.
On July 29, police
arrested Kulsum and a case was filed against her with Kotwali Police Station.
End/Dct/Abz/Sma/
