High Court tells police to produce two minors arrested for murder

Police have been ordered to produce the two minors arrested over a murder before the High Court.

The bench of justices Quazi Reza-Ul Hoque and Mohammad Ullah gave the order on Sunday after hearing a petition by rights body, Children Charity Bangladesh Foundation (CCBF).

Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) will have to produce the boys before the court on Jan 29. The DMP commissioner has been instructed to implement the order.

CCBF Chairman Md Abdul Halim represented the petitioner on Sunday while Deputy Attorney General Tapash Kumar Biswas stood for the State.

Halim told the media later that their petition included the Nov 24 report ran by a national daily on the issue.

After an initial hearing on Nov 29, the court issued a rule asking why the arrests of the minors will be not be declared illegal and why the two families will be not given Tk 2 million each as compensation.

It had then also ordered police to file a report on whether measures had been to taken to determine the age of the two boys, which was submitted on Jan 4.

"We had petitioned the court to summon the police officers, who prepared the report, but the court ordered to produce the boys before it," Halim said after Sunday's hearing.

The Nov 24 report on Bangla daily 'Prothom Alo' said that police recovered the mutilated body of an unidentified boy in September.

Ten days later, the family of a missing boy claimed the body and started a murder case.

Police arrested the boys and produced them before a court, which sent them to the juvenile correctional facility at Gazipur's Tongi.

According to the Children Act 2013, police cannot arrest or detain anyone under the age of 9.

The case details stated that the boys were 12 years old, but their families claim that they were below 9.

The family of one of the boys has submitted the birth certificate to the court, where it says he was born on Jan 29, 2008.