Kushtia SP Tanvir Arafat apologises for ‘misbehaving’ with magistrate

Kushtia Police Superintendent SM Tanvir Arafat has apologised for his ‘misbehaviour’ with a senior judicial magistrate during the municipal election in Bheramara.

Staff Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 25 Jan 2021, 11:56 AM
Updated : 25 Jan 2021, 12:28 PM

Arafat appeared before a panel of judges on Monday seeking forgiveness after the High Court summoned him.

A virtual bench of Justice Mamnoon Rahman and Justice Khijir Hayat exempted the police superintendent from personal appearance and scheduled the next hearing for Feb 17.

The court also ordered the authorities to provide security for Md Shahjahan Ali, the election-time presiding officer at the Bheramara Pilot High School centre and his family.

Lawyer Mansurul Haque Chowdhury and Ahmed Ishtiaq represented Tanvir, while Anik R Haque and Ishrat Hasan were the legal counsels for the presiding officer. Deputy Attorney General Taherul Islam was the state counsel.

“The police superintendent couldn’t recognise the magistrate and made a mistake unintentionally. He’ll be more cautious in performing his duties in future,” Tanvir’s lawyer Mansurul Haque told the court.

Lawyer Ishtiaq presented a written appeal by the SP to the court.

“I have the deepest respect for the judiciary. I’ll be honoured to serve the judiciary and can never think of dishonouring it even for a short while. I repent from the core of my heart and seek forgiveness from the court,” Tanvir wrote in his appeal.

Police should be active in their work, not in words, Justice Khijir Hayat told the police superintendent. They should ensure the security of the people from all spheres of society, irrespective of their political and ideological leanings, he added.

“Police should become people’s friends through their work and not strike fear into them. It will be a terrible situation for the nation if whatever we saw in the media about Kushtia is true. The country shouldn’t become a police state. People are worried and it’s your duty to calm their worry.”

On Jan 20, the High Court summoned Police Superintendent Tanvir Arafat to explain his misbehaviour with Senior Judicial Magistrate Md Mohsin Hasan. It also issued a rule asking why there will be no contempt of court complaint against him. The ruling came after media reports on the incident.

Senior Judicial Magistrate Mohsin Hasan accused SP Tanvir Arafat and his team of ‘misbehaving’ with him and preventing him from performing his duties during the Bheramara Municipality election on Jan 16. 

The magistrate filed a petition with the Election Commission on Jan 17 seeking actions against the SP and his team.

As a first-class judicial magistrate, Hasan was assigned to oversee the Bheramara Municipality election from Jan 14 to 18, he wrote. The incident occurred at Bheramara Pilot High School at 10 am on Jan 16.

Hasan saw ‘some people’ sitting on a bench inside the polling booth with polling agents. Then he called the presiding officer to talk about the issue. A team of 50 led by SP Tanvir entered the voting centre.

“He called out the presiding officer loudly. Police officials, including Additional SP Mostafizur Rahman, prevented the presiding officer from talking to me and forced him to go with them [to meet the SP].”

“Then ASP Mostafizur Rahman rebuked the presiding officer and led him away. SP Tanvir Arafat then approached me and asked who I was and what I was doing there.”

“When I introduced myself, he said angrily, ‘What are you doing here? How rude! Get out of here.’ I stood there stunned and bewildered by the aggressive and disrespectful behaviour.”

“The action of the police superintendent and his force was totally against the Local Government Election Rules 2010,” Mohsin wrote.