High Court orders fresh report on Shahidul Alam

The High Court has ordered the authorities to check if Drik Gallery founder Shahidul Alam was tortured physically or mentally in police custody.

The court ordered the home secretary on Thursday to submit a report to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court by Monday.

Justice Syed Muhammad Dastagir Husain and Justice Md Iqbal Kabir passed the order in response to a writ petition filed by Alam’s wife Rahnuma Ahmed challenging the legitimacy of his remand and seeking order to transfer him to a hospital.

Following the previous order, the Detective Branch of police took Alam to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University on Wednesday, but the doctors there “found no reason” to admit him and the law enforcers took him back into their custody. 

After the hospital submitted its report on Alam to the High Court on Thursday, Sara Hossain, a lawyer for the petitioner, sought a fresh medical checkup on the photographer.   

The first checkup was incomplete because no psychiatrist checked whether Alam was tortured in custody, Hossain argued.

Attorney General Mahbubey Alam and Deputy Attorney General Amit Talukder stood for the state during the hearing.

On Monday, the Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court placed Alam in police custody for seven days of questioning in a case under the ICT Act.

Alam, who is also the founder of Pathshala South Asian Media Institute, is involved in human-rights movement.

He streamed videos on Facebook Live discussing the clashes in the Jigatala area amid student protests for road safety on Aug 4-5.

He also criticised the government during an interview with Al Jazeera. His family told the media that he had been taken from his home in Dhanmondi.

Later, DB charged him with attempting to spread ‘fear and panic’ over the internet using ‘fantastical and provocative lies’.