Court relieves Salim Osman of charges in a case over public humiliation of Narayanganj teacher

A Dhaka court has relieved lawmaker AKM Salim Osman of all charges in a case over the public humiliation of Shyamal Kanti Bhakta, a Narayanganj-based schoolteacher.

The court said it did not find “any element” in the case to run the trial of Osman.

Dhaka Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate AKM Emdadul Haque acquitted Salim, a member from an influential family in Narayanganj, on Tuesday following a hearing on the case.

But the trial of Apu, another suspect in the case, will continue.

On May 13, 2016 Shyamal Kanti Bhakta, the headmaster of Piyar Sattar Latif High School at Narayanganj’s Bandar Upazila, was beaten by a mob and made to do sit-ups holding his ears in public by Osman for allegedly insulting Islam.

People flooded the social media with photos of themselves holding ears and saying 'Sorry Sir' in a unique show of public condemnation. Human chains and other forms of protests were also held.

The incident sparked a storm of nationwide protests and the government dissolved the school’s managing committee, which had sacked the Hindu teacher following the incident.

Bhakta, however, was reinstated, while Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid said a government inquiry had not found any truth in the allegations levelled against the teacher.

Amid a public uproar over the incident, Salim Osman had said in a statement that misunderstandings had been created among different quarters over the ‘undesired incident’.

Jatiya Party Co-Chairman GM Quader had said that the party was ‘embarrassed’ by the MP’s action after he publicly shamed the teacher.

Since the incident, Osman was under fire from many, including the ruling Awami League leaders.

Salim Osman, a businessman-turned-politician from the powerful Osman family, had joined the Jatiya Party after his elder brother AKM Nasim Osman died in 2014. He was elected from Nasim’s Narayanganj-5 constituency in June that year.