Bangladesh judge relieved of duties after pronouncing controversial judgement on rape case

Amid uproar on social media, Supreme Court of Banglesh ordered to relieve a woman judge of court duties for her controversial remarks in a four-year-old rape case. According to local media reports, Judge Begum Mosammat Kamrunnahar Nahar of Dhaka’s Seventh Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal, while hearing a rape case, ordered to release five youngsters accused of raping two university students. Apart from releasing youngsters, she directed police officers not to register an FIR after 72 hours of rape. local media reports said two victims were raped in two separate rooms of plush Raintree Hotel. Subsequently, victims filed a case with Banani police station a month after incident.

According to a report by Daily Star newspaper, Supreme Court spokesman Mohamm Saifur Rahman said that Judge Kamrunnahar has been relieved of her court duties from Monday. " decision to suspend judge has been taken in consultation with or senior justices. Supreme Court sent a letter to Ministry of Law to temporarily revoke judicial powers and withdraw her from her current workplace and assign her to Ministry of Law’s Law and Justice Department," re statement released by Supreme Court. It is worth mentioning that Judge Kamrunnahar was hearing a rape case on 11 November in which she acquitted all five accused due to lack of evidence.

Observation on rape cases was illegal: SC

She observed, " police officer wasted public's time and no rape case should be filed 72 hours after crime." "It proved that university students h consensual sex before incident," bdnews24.com quoted her observation. Law Minister Anisul Huq said, "Her observation gives wrong instructions to law enforcement agencies. Hence, it was necessary to take action against judge. This too will go ahe in a completely legal way." According to Huq, woman judge was given a show-cause notice and asked her to clarify reasons for making such a controversial observation. "Let me make one thing clear – I don’t want to talk about content of verdict. But her observation asking police not to record a case 72 hours after rape is totally illegal and unconstitutional," Huq said. 

(With inputs from PTI)

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