Legal notice asks govt not to discuss ongoing MP Anar’s murder investigation with the media

The notice asks government officials not to speak to the media on the details of an ongoing investigation

A lawyer has sent a legal notice asking government officials to stop discussing the ongoing investigation of MP Anwarul Azim Anar’s murder case with the media in light of a High Court order to the effect.

Advocate Mohammad Shishir Monir sent the notice to the senior secretary of the Home Ministry’s Public Security Division, the inspector general of police, and the Dhaka Metropolitan Police commissioner on Wednesday.

The notice said that Jhenaidah-4 MP Anwarul Azim Anar went missing after going to India’s West Bengal for treatment. According to media reports, he was brutally killed, but his body has yet to be recovered.

The incident has created a public sensation and become a major topic of discussion with real-time updates disseminated through electronic, press, and social media, it said. The governments of Bangladesh and India are conducting investigations into the incident and treating it with the utmost importance while releasing official updates from time to time.

Reporters are raising various questions on the situation and authorities are giving out answers. Many small details are coming up in these answers and broadcast live, with many outlets framing the headlines according to their own choice, the notice said.

Meanwhile, freelancers are broadcasting segments of these reports on popular social media platforms and creating confusion.

The legal notice highlighted the case of Ayesha Siddika Minni v the State, where the High Court had ordered government officials not to discuss the incident with the media during the investigation.

In that order the High Court had said, “During the investigation of various hotly debated crimes, accused persons arrested by various law enforcement agencies, including the police and the RAB, are often presented before the media in various ways before being produced in the respective courts, which is often dishonourable and impermissible from the point of view of human rights. Briefings on the investigation are done in front of the media with great enthusiasm.”

“We must remember that until an accused is found guilty on the basis of evidence at the end of a trial in a court of law, it cannot be conclusively said that he is the real criminal or that the crime was committed by him. It is not appropriate to present an arrested person before the media in such a manner that his dignity and honour are lost and during the investigation i.e. before the filing of the police report, it is not appropriate to present any statement to the media about the arrested person or the investigation process of the case, which creates or can create controversy or questions in the public mind about the impartiality of the investigation.”

Shishir Monir mentioned in the notice that he will file a writ to the effect if the media does not stop broadcasting the matter under investigation in light of the High Court's directive.