Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust on Friday condemned recent extrajudicial punishment of a woman in a local arbitration in Cumilla鈥檚 Chauddagram upazila.
The legal service-providing organisation also demanded that those persons involved must be brought to justice and the Supreme Court鈥檚 verdict regarding extrajudicial punishment must be followed, said a press release on Friday.
Referring to different media reports and social media contents, BLAST said that local people caught a man and a woman over allegations of an 鈥榠llicit relationship鈥� in the upazila Sreepur union on October 16. Later, a local union parishad member publicly beat her with a stick, pulled her hair and abused her.
On October 17, under the leadership of the same UP member, an arbitration was held where the woman鈥檚 marriage to her husband was dissolved through a phone call, and she was forcibly married to the man she was accused of having the relationship with, with a Tk 500,000 kabinnama.
鈥楤LAST demands that those involved in this criminal activity must be brought to justice immediately,鈥� demanded the organisation.
It urged the authorities to take steps to remove videos or contents containing the victim鈥檚 image from social media immediately.
BLAST noted that the incident was contradictory to the Supreme Court鈥檚 verdict in 2010 and demanded that the authorities must take necessary steps to ensure the proper implementation of the verdict banning all forms of extrajudicial punishment.
The organisation also mentioned that the act of the punishment blatantly violates different articles of the country鈥檚 constitution, such as ensuring equality before the law, the right to protection of law, the right to life and personal liberty, and the prohibition of cruel, inhuman, or degrading punishment or treatment.
