The High Court on Monday asked Shariatpur deputy commissioner and civil surgeon to immediately exhume the body of Hena Akhter who succumbed to injury reportedly by whipping in Shariatpur on January 23.
The bench of Justice AHM Shamsuddin Chowdhury and Justice Sheikh Md Zakir Hossain also asked the civil surgeon to conduct post-mortem of the body by a three-member expert team, comprising gynaecologist, forensic expert and a doctor of Suhrawardy Hospital, who talked to media about Hena’s autopsy report.
The remains of Hena Akter was exhumed following High Court orders, reports Bdnews24.com.
On Monday, around 10:00pm, her remains were exhumed in the presence of executive magistrate Habibullah, Shariatpur Sadar Hospital’s resident medical officer Nirmal Chandra and Naria police officer-in-charge Abul Khayer Fakir.
Her remains were then sent to Dhaka, according to the case investigation officer Mohammad Aslamuddin.
The High Court in its order had asked autopsy committee chairman Nirmal Chanda Das and members Sultan Ahmed and Hosne Ara Begum and the doctors and nurses, who provided Hena with medical treatment, to appear before it on February 10 to explain their findings over the post-mortem that said no injury mark found on Hena’s body.
Naria police sub-inspector Aslam Uddin, who prepared inquest report of the body on February 2, saying no injury mark was found on her body, to appear before the court on February 10 with the first information report, inquest report and Hena’s confessional statement, recorded by a magistrate.
The magistrate concerned was also asked to provide Aslam with a copy of the statement.
The court also asked local Union Parishad councillor Idris Sheikh, who reportedly whipped Hena on January 23, to appear before it on February 10 to explain his position over the allegation.
The court directed the attorney general’s office to contract the deputy commissioner and the civil surgeon over phone and to send the copy of the order by fax without any delay.
The order was passed suo moto as deputy attorney general Altaf Hossain had drawn the court’s attention to a report published on Monday in The Daily Star headlined ‘Police, post-mortem miss injury marks’.
The court observed that the inquest and autopsy report contradicts the national media, which quoting numerous witnesses had reported the adolescent girl Hena had died on January 31 after being whipped at arbitration at Chamta of Naria in Shariatpur on January 23.
She was accused of having an extra-marital affair with a married man. Some of the reports, however, said that the girl had been raped by her cousin and was whipped along with the alleged rapist.
The same court, on a rule suo moto, on February 2, asked the Shariatpur deputy commissioner and Naria upazila nirbahi officer to explain in 15 days what steps were taken to save the girl from being whipped in violation of the verdict.
The bench of Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain and Justice Gobinda Chandra Tagore, in a verdict delivered on October 8, 2010, declared illegal the imposition of extra-judicial penalties, including beating and caning, under the relevant laws in the name of local arbitration.
The court pronounced the verdict after hearing three writ petitions filed by rights groups Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust, Bangladesh Mahila Parishad, Ain o Salish Kendra, BRAC and Nijera Kori on August 25, 2009, and Supreme Court lawyers Salauddin Dolon on January 24, 2010 and Mahbub Shafiq in May 2010.
