HC rejects Bangladesh photographer Shahidul’s writ petition

Photographer Shahidul Alam. File photo.

Bangladesh desk: The High Court on Monday rejected the writ petition filed by acclaimed Bangladesh photographer Shahidul Alam challenging investigation of a case filed against him under the now-repealed section 57 of the Information and Communication Technology Act 2006.

The bench of Justice JBM Hassan and Justice Razik-Al-Jalil on Sunday deferred its decision until Monday on whether the Detective Branch of police could resume an investigation into the case against Shahidul as Shahidul’s lawyer AF Hassan Ariff made an additional argument to reply to a government argument.

Attorney general AM Amin Uddin had earlier argued that Shahidul’s writ petition against the DB probe was not maintainable as the proceeding of a criminal case could not be challenged through a writ petition.

One can only file a criminal petition for quashing such a case, he argued, adding that Shahidul should have filed a criminal petition under Section 561A of the Code of Criminal Procedure for quashing the proceedings of the case.

He said that there was no bar on the resumption of the investigation into the case against Shahidul as the Digital Security Act allowed pending proceedings initiated under the repealed sections of the ICT act 2006.

He argued that proceedings of a criminal case started soon after the filing of the first information report of a case.

Hassan argued that the DB had no jurisdiction to resume the case against Shahidul under Section 57 of the ICT as the Digital Security Act did not empower investigators to continue with pending investigations in the repealed Section of the ICT Act.

He argued that Shahidul filed the writ petition challenging the legality of continuing pending probe into the ICT case as the proceedings of a criminal case could not be challenged unless the police submitted the charge sheet of a case.

Hassan argued that the DSA allowed continuing trials of only those cases which were pending before the cyber tribunals.

‘As the case against Shahidul, which is still under investigation and has not reached the trial stage, it cannot be continued as per the Digital Security Act,’ Hassan argued.

Lawyers Sara Hossain and Moaz Arif assisted Hassan.

On March 14, 2019 the High Court stayed the investigation into the case, asking the police to explain why the probes under the repealed section 57 of the ICT act would not be declared illegal and contradictory to section 61(2) of the DSA.

On August 5, 2018, members of the Detective Branch in plainclothes picked up Shahidul Alam from his Dhanmondi residence in Dhaka at midnight without showing any warrant or ground.

Fifteen hours after he had been picked up, the DB filed a case against him under the ICT act’s section 57, which was, later, repealed by the Digital Security Act in 2018.

In this case, the DB alleged that Shahidul instigated the students’ movement for road safety in July 2018.

Shahidul had been detained in Dhaka Central Jail for 108 days and was released on bail on November 20, 2018 on a High Court order.