The Detective Branch of police on Thursday arrested three Supreme Court lawyers, including opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party lawmaker Syeda Asifa Ashrafi Papia.
The three lawyers were arrested at the Bangladesh Bar Council premises a few hours after a High Court judge had felt embarrassed to hear the petitions filed by 14 lawyers, including two of the three, seeking bail.
The 14 lawyers sought bail in a case filed with the Shahbagh police on Tuesday accusing them of assaulting police and obstructing law enforcers in discharging their duties inside a courtroom during a scuffle between lawyers loyal to the ruling Awami League and opposition BNP.
'A detective branch team arrested Papia, Towhidul Islam and Abu Bakar Siddique Rajan at about 3:00pm, while they were passing the Bangladesh Bar Council building in a car, and they are now in the DB custody,' DB assistant commissioner Shahidullah told New Age.
Papia and Towhidul were among the 14 lawyers named in the first information report of the case filed with the Shahbagh police by DB sub-inspector Solaiman.
In the case, 30-40 lawyers were made accused, but the 14 were named.
The police said Abu Bakar was also arrested on suspicion of his involvement in the alleged offence.
Besides, the police were trying to arrest Supreme Court lawyer Mohammad Ali, also an accused in the case, who was, along with some of his colleagues, staying at the Supreme Court Bar Association office till 9:00pm.
The police practically besieged the bar association building.
Dhaka metropolitan police Ramna zone additional deputy commissioner Nurul Islam said, 'We are trying to arrest Mohammad Ali as he is named as an accused in the case.'
Mohammad Ali told reporters last night that he had come to the court as usual, but could not get out of the bar association as the police were trying to arrest him.
Other pro-BNP lawyers were fearing arrest as police in plain clothes cordoned the court premises to arrest the accused lawyers after their bail petitions were not heard by the High Court.
Earlier in the morning, the High Court bench of Justice Nozrul Islam Chowdhury and Justice Anwarul Haque refused to hear bail petitions of the 14 lawyers saying that one of the judges had felt embarrassed.
The same court on Wednesday deferred till Thursday the hearing as deputy attorney general Mohammad Ullah, who is in-charge of the bench, sought time saying attorney general Mahbubey Alam had wished to appear in the case for the government.
As the junior judge of the bench felt embarrassed to hear the petitions, the bench sent the matter to the chief justice for taking appropriate action.
A group of senior lawyers led by Supreme Court Bar Association president Khandaker Mahbub Hossain met the chief justice Md Muzammel Hossain to request that the bail petitions be sent to another bench for an expeditious hearing.
The chief justice is yet to make a decision in this regard, Mahbub told reporters.
The senior lawyers also sought permission from the Appellate Division chamber judge, Syed Mahmud Hossain, to file an application for staying the High Court order passed on Wednesday imposing a temporary ban on legal practice of 13 of the 14 lawyers.
They also sought
permission to file a provisional petition seeking permission to appeal against the High Court order.
The chamber judge set Sunday for passing an order on the matter.
The High Court bench of Justice AHM Shamsuddin Chowdhury and Justice Gobinda Chandra Tagore, on Wednesday passed the order after the scuffle it witnessed on Tuesday between pro-Awami League and BNP-backed lawyers in the courtroom when it warned the BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia not to make indecorous comments on the constitution.
The High Court, after hearing a verbal prayer from deputy attorney general ABM Altaf Hossain, also issued a rule suo moto on the Bangladesh Bar Council and the 13 lawyers to explain in 10 days why their certificates of enrolment should not be cancelled.
The 13 lawyers – Papia, Kamrul Islam Sajal, Shahiduzzaman, Mirza Al Mahmud, Sharif Uddin Ahmed, Abdullah Al Mahmud, Enamul Hossain, MU Ahmed, Mohammad Ali, Md Ashrafuzzaman Khan, Towhidul Islam, Christian Nobi and Rezwan Ahmed – were seen sitting without gown, at the offices of the Supreme Court Bar Association president and secretary.
The High Court, however, imposed no ban on legal practice of Mahmudul Arefin Swapan, who was named in the police case, as the deputy attorney general had told the court that Mahmudul was not present during the scuffle.
On Thursday, the 13 lawyers, who had
been banned from appearing in any court excepting in a case in which they needed to get bail or interim order, were seen entering a courtroom to seek bail from a High Court bench.
Seeking bails for the 14 lawyers, Khandker Mahbub told the bench of Justice Nozrul Islam and Justice Anwarul Haque that the police lodged the case only to harass the opposition lawyers. 'The case stated that two rival groups of lawyers had scuffled, but the case was filed against one of the groups.'
Mahbub also asked how police in plain clothes could enter the courtroom without permission from the chief justice and how they could identify the lawyers without an inquiry.
In 2006, when the BNP was in power, the pro-Awami League lawyers had vandalised the courtroom and set a car of the then state minister for law Shahjahan Omar on fire. The Supreme Court registrar, not the police, had filed a case in connection with the vandalism, Mahbub said.
Attorney general Mahbubey Alam in his submission said that he was in the court to protect the dignity of the Supreme Court, not against the accused lawyers.
'As Supreme Court lawyers, how could they say in the presence of Justice Shamsuddin Chowdhury in the courtroom, that they would beat him with a shoe,' said Mahbubey Alam.
Amid the attorney general's argument, Justice Nozrul Islam said that one of the judges in the bench had felt embarrassed to hear the petitions.
Source : New Age