THE arrest of a retired professor of Jagannath University in a dubious case related to the violence during the July uprising in 2024 raises serious concern as such arrest and cases stand to harm justice and allow perpetrators to escape unpunished. Professor SM Anwara Begum, a freedom fighter and former political science teacher, was sent to jail on May 29 in an attempted murder case. She has been charged with the attempted murder of a former general secretary of the university unit of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal. While the investigating officer has claimed that preliminary findings suggest her involvement, her family and students have termed the charges fabricated and called it legal harassment. The plaintiff alleges that she gave preferential treatment to candidates affiliated with the fallen Awami League government when she was a member of the Public Service Commission. If proved true, this is a disciplinary misconduct, but it does not support the allegation made in the case statement. The incident, therefore, suggests that the reckless legacy of the abuse of the legal system continues in the changed political context.
The arrest of the elderly woman is not an isolated incident. An actress was arrested on May 19 and sent to jail in a similar case of attempted murder allegedly committed during the July uprising. Many speculated that she had been arrested because of playing the role of the deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina in a film and for her support for the Awami League regime. Similar speculations were made when in October 2024, an attempted murder case against an eminent Supreme Court lawyer, also known for his role as a rights defender in the past decades, was brought for his alleged involvement in the July massacre. Many thought that he had been subjected to legal harassment because of his criticism of the interim government on certain issues. On a number of occasions, cases against deceased leaders and activists of the Awami League have been filed. The government has repeatedly assured that it will ensure no harassment in vexatious cases, yet the harassment continues.
All authorities should, therefore, ask the police to be thorough and follow caution in filing cases related to the July massacre because falsely accusing a retired teacher, or anyone for that matter, and making the deceased accused in a case or wholesale murder cases is a procedural violation that carries the risk of making the entire legal process controversial. The higher judiciary is expected to instruct subordinate courts to review facts before taking cognisance of cases related to the July massacre.
