STATEMENT: RESTRICTION ON THE MOVEMENT AND POLITICAL ACTIVITIES HAS BEEN IMPOSED UPON SHEIKH HASINA

By- Adv. Shahanur Islam Saikot 

Programme Manager-Legal &amp Human Rights

RESTRICTION ON THE MOVEMENT AND POLITICAL ACTIVITIES HAS BEEN IMPOSED UPON SHEIKH HASINA, FORMER PRIME MINISTER OF BANGLADESH AND PRESIDENT OF BANGLADESH AWAMI LEAGUE BY ARMY BACKED CARE TAKER GOV’T. 

The present caretaker government backed by Army took power on 11 january 2007 as per Article 58(C0 of the Bangladesh constitution with the commitment to hold parliamentary election and hand over power within 90 days to the people representative as it is the constitutional binding as per above article. So the legal tenure was limited up to 30 th June of 2007. Sheikh Hasina put her demand to hold the election timely offer preparation of up to date voter list as per the high court verdict. The government with design to prolong its power did not pay any head to the legal demand of Sheikh Hasia and started to the following measures to shut her voice. 1. Imposition of restriction on indoor politics 2. Ripen the false case instituted against her by the last BNP- Jamat joint Government, which have been stayed by the high court as those were found false by the court. 3. Implicated her name in a murder case which was committed on 26 December 2006 in course of two rival political parties face to face procession. 4. Instituted three false extortion cases. 5. Arrest of her senior leader of her party Awami League with out any specific Allegation or Charge. 6. Putting restriction upon the visitors to her residence. 7. Imposition bar to her visit to USA to look after her pregnant daughter. The recently recent cases are false and fabricated is narrate in annexure- I And II. The government is prolonging their power with a plea of new voter list and voter ID card. By this time they are trying to break the two major political parties Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Bangladesh Awami League to create political vacuum to safe guard their power with participation of army like Pakistan. Under the prevailing situation the political institution will be praised paving way of fundamentalist to state power like Afganistan. So, for the instant democracy as per existing agenda of world community for on politics to be lifted immediately, state of emergency should be withdrawn immediately and election should be held as soon as possible. Annexure-I Case no: 32/478 date. 13.06.07, Police Station Tejgaon, Dhaka Metroplitan Police, Dhaka under section 385/109 Bangladesh Penal Code against Sheikh Hasina, Ex-Prime Minister, is false and fabricated for the reasons narrated below: 1.In the column of the First Information Report (F.I.R.) recorded by Police the Place of Occurrence (P.O) is Ganabhaban and the date of occurrence were from 08.06.97 to 20.09.99. But those dates were the dates of withdrawal of money from Standard Chartered Bank and I.F.I.C. Bank at Banani and Gulshan branch, Dhaka. So on those dates, no occurrence took place at Gonobhaban and the place of occurrence has been shown as false. 2. In November 1996 tender was called and in march 1997 New England Power Company (NEPC) was selected by the Power Development Board (PDB). In the context of Bangladesh Govt. Tender Procedure and issuing work order of any electric power plant to the selected bidder no abnormal delay is found in this case. The Power Minister was Ex Army Chief Lt. General (retd) Mr. Nurunuddin Khan. So giving pressure upon the local agent of power plant supplier NEPC by Sheikh Helal, the cousin of Sheikh Hasina for realization of 5 Crore Taka as a gratification with the threat of stopping work order was false. 3. It has been alleged that SK. Helal asked the complainant to hand over cash taka to SK. Hasina's hand but the complainant handed over 12 Cash cheques. The dates and time of handing over of those cheque has not been mentioned by the complainant. From the list of those cheque, it is found that the money was withdrawn long after negotiation (March 1997) with NEPC. The cheque Noumbers, amount and dates of withdrawal of money are as follows: SL Cheque No Bank Amount Withdrawal date 1. 731952 Standard Chartered Bank 50,00,000 08.06.97 2. 731951 Do 50,00,000 08.06.97 3. 556002 Do 50,00,000 03.08.98 (after 1 Year 2 month) 4. 556009 Do 50,00,000 27.12.98 (after 4 month 24 days) 5. 528834 Do 10,00,000 24.01.99 (after about one month) 6. 528835 Do 50,00,000 06.03.99 (after one month 18 days) 7. 2336085 IFIC Bank 30,00,000 23.03.99 8. 54291 Standard Chartered Bank, Banani 10,00,000 05.04.99 9. 54293 Do 10,00,000 15.04.99 10. 54294 Do 10,00,000 26.04.99 11. 528848 Do 20,00,000 04.05.99 12. 54300 Do 20,00,000 20.05.99 For realizing gratification there is no example to accept such cheques of long duration of about 2 years. So the allegation of accepting those cheques is false and baseless story. The complainant has alleged that those cheques were handed over to SK. Hasina at Gonobhaban as an assurance of obtaining work order. It means that those cheques were delivered to Sheikh Hasina within March, 1997, before issuance of negotiation letter by P.D.B to NEPC. This is an unbelievable story which is false and fabricated. 4. All those cheques were CASH cheques. The complainant could not produce any evidence of withdrawal of money by Sheikh Hasina or her representatives. So acceptance of money by Sheikh Hasina is false and fabricated. 5.The cheques are found to be of different abnormal series which also create doubts in issuance of those cheques to the same person. 6. The complainant has alleged that he paid 1 crore 80 lac in cash to Seikh Helal but could not produce any evidence at the time of lodging the case. His claim to produce the evidence lateron is not acceptable as an evidence as it is after thought evidence. 7. As per Bangladesh Penal Code Section 385 is applicable only when at the threat of causing injury a person realizes money or any thing from the affected person. But in the so called story of this case there was no threat of causing injury to the complainant to realize money from him. So this case must not have to be instituted under section 385/109 Bangladesh Penal Code by the police. This proves police has instituted this case with ill motive. Annexure –II Case No. 34/489 dated 13.06.07 Section 385/109 Bangladesh Penal Code (B.P.C), Police Station Gulshan Dhaka Metropolition Police, against Sheikh Hasina and here cousin Sheikh Faizlul Karim is False & fabricated for the following reasons: 1. The Complainant Azam Chowdhury has alleged that Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim approached M/S Techno Prome Export (T.P.E) Russia to become local commission agent himself of Shiddhirganj Power Plant, Narayangonj, in the year 2000. At that time SK. F. K. Selim was the Health Minister holding Govt. office. As per existing rule, any person holding Govt. office can not be the Commission Agent of a foreign company. So the allegation of becoming Commission Agent against SK. F.K. Selim is false. 2. The complainant has alleged that T.P.F refused SK. F.K Selim to appoint him as their agent in the running project. For that refusal SK. F. K. Selim demanded commission. The question of refusal by T.P.E does not arise because SK. F.K. Selim as a Minister, had no scope to be the Commission Agent. So the allegation is false and baseless. 3. The complainant went to SK. F.K. Selim's Banani residence and handed over 8 cheques of 8 different dates amounting Tk 2,99,65,500. He has not mentioned the date and time of his presence in the house of SK. F.K. Selim. The name of Payee were also not mentioned in the allegation. The allegation is written, the complainant got enough time to write the story of allegation, so there is no scope of committing mistake in mentioning date, time and name of the payee. Without date & time the commission of occurrence is not admissible. So the allegation is false and fabricated. 4. Since the allegation against the Principal accused SK. F.K. Selim is false so the allegation *of abetment against SK. Hasina is absolutely false. 5. As per Bangladesh Penal Code Section 385 is applicable only when at the threat of causing injury a person realizes money or any thing from the affected person. But in the so called story of this case there was no threat of causing injury to the complainant to realize money from him. So this case must not have to be instituted under section 385/109 Bangladesh Penal Code by the police. This proves police has instituted this case with ill motive.