Law Letter : Abusive police remand to extract confessional statement

NONE of Bangladeshi laws admits involuntary confession in judicial proceedings. Yet law enforcement agencies have been arbitrarily arresting thousands of innocent citizens for decades, in most cases either for political end or for getting bribes. The magistrates have been ordering remands indiscriminately for extracting confessions, where violence and torture are endemic.

In such a situation both the police and the lower judiciary are on the verge of their doom by losing public confidence. The higher judiciary is more cautiously restrained than proactive as a custodian of the citizen's constitutional guarantees. The law regarding confessions makes it clear that while recording of confessional statements, the Magistrate must follow the format what may be admissible as a confession. Our Constitution makes it clear that no one must be subject to cruel, degrading and inhuman treatment.

The Constitution of Bangladesh also guarantees fundamental rights to life and personal liberty, equality before law, protection of law, safeguards against arrest and detention, and freedom of movement. What is now necessary is the proper and effective implementation of these laws, and if necessary, their amendment, in order to ensure that a person on trial is innocent until it can be proven that he is guilty.

The Executive must understand the spirit of good governance propelled by the constitutional rule of law. It must learn to live and operate within the bounds of law. It is incumbent upon the Executive to act together with Parliament and the judiciary in working out legal safeguards against the self-serving and sectarian use of police powers. It would be rewarding for those innocent victims who despair in police remand, if the government reviews the human rights record of police officials. The citizens of Bangladesh will not achieve dignified human existence unless the ongoing barbarous acts of torture under police remand in the name of extracting confessional statements are dealt with proper law, and their perpetrators are brought to justice.

Humayun Kabir

Student of  Law & Justice, Jahangirnagar University
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