Nusrat Jahan Tania, sister of Mosarat Jahan Munia who was found dead at a Gulshan flat on April 26 last, may face up to seven years imprisonment, if she fails to prove the allegations she made by filing a case.
Nusrat filed the fresh case against eight people with the Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal of Dhaka on Monday.
Bangladesh enacted a strict law titling Women and Children Repression Prevention Act-2000 to prevent the abuse of women and children. This law was last amended in 2021. But since enactment of this law, some people have been abusing it to harass their opponent by filing false case. For this reason, a provision has been made under Section 16 of the Act to prevent such type of false case. According to the Section 16 of the Act, if any one files a false case to harass someone then he/she will have to face punishment and it may be imprisonment for up to 7 years.
Police recovered the body of Munia from a Gulshan flat on April 26 last. That day Munia’s sister Nusrat lodged a case with Gulshan Police Station with an allegation of instigating the suicide.
Officer-in-charge of the police station Abul Hassan investigated the allegation very objectively. He analysed the incident very meticulously talking to people concerned at different stages of the investigation.
In the end, he submitted the final report before the court on July 19 mentioning that no evidence of instigation was found in the Munia’s death.
The court received the report on July 22. After a hearing, the court exonerated the lone accused from the charges on August 18. At the same time, the court also dismissed the Naraji (no confidence) petition submitted by Nusrat against the police report which led to end of a false case.
But Nusrat is being persuaded by a quarter and they motivated her to file a new case for another purpose. As a result, Nusrat filed the case with the Dhaka Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal-8 on Monday accusing 8 people.
In the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act, the rape has been mentioned in the articles 9 (1), 9 (2) and 9 (2). It was stated in the the act that if the victim is alive after the rape, then section 9 (1) will be applicable and article 9 (2) will be applicable if the victim being killed after rape, while 9 (2) for gang rape.
Munia died on April 19 and her autopsy report showed that she had committed suicide. Jurists opined that filing of a rape case after a long interval of the incident is purposeful. Because, the case has to be filed immediately after the incident of rape but they failed to do so. According to the law, rape is forcing someone to have sexual intercourse with him without her consent. Legal analysts said that it seems to them that the case has been filed with an ill motive.
As the case of instigating the suicide ended with no result in their favour, now a murder case has been filed. The autopsy report has already proved that Munia has committed suicide. Question has risen that what is the intention to call it a murder when the autopsy report proved that it is a suicide. As per the rule, the Dhaka Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal-8 directed the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) to investigate the case. The PBI will investigate the case and unearthed the truth. But, the lower court, which already burdened with a huge number of cases, has to deal with a new case which main purpose is to spread propaganda against some people in the media to demean their images.
Therefore, many people think that the end result of this case could be the same as the case of instigation to suicide. In that case, Nusrat could be convicted for filing a false case and she may have to face maximum of seven years imprisonment under section 16 of the law.
BDST: 1158 HRS, SEP 07, 2021
SMS
