Chargesheet must be submitted to the court promptly

Cases involving serious and criminal offenses that are difficult to resolve at the police station are forwarded to the Detective Branch (DB). Later, upon the directive of higher authorities, they are transferred to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) for further investigation. In reality, every month, thousands of cases from all over the country are transferred to the CID headquarters in Dhaka for investigation. As a result, the workload becomes immense, resembling a mountain. This often leads to delays in the investigation of cases, causing frustration not only for the victims involved but also for the country as a whole.

The workload and pressure at the headquarters of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) are extremely high. Despite this, there is a demand from the litigants to quickly submit the complaint petitions of cases pending investigation to the court. However, doing so exacerbates the suffering of the litigants; secondly, due to the prolonged detention of cases, it provides an opportunity for the perpetrators to escape.

A special report published in the media yesterday (6th May) reveals that even after the completion of investigations, the CID is still holding 2000 cases. Some cases have been pending for a long time, even more than three years. Despite the evidence proving the allegations, these cases are still pending only because the CID chief has not signed them. Once the investigation of cases brought from police stations is completed and the evidence memorandum (EM) is sent to the CID chief, he will sign it. Then the investigating officers will submit those cases to the court. After that, the actual process of adjudicating the accused will begin. It's a lengthy process.

It seems that the mountain of cases is accumulating at the CID chief's desk due to genuine reasons. They are unable to expedite the process. Former CID chief Mohammad Shafiqul Islam told the media that it's not feasible for the CID chief to personally handle thousands of cases. Essentially, decisions are made by the CID chief based on the opinions of the specialized police superintendents acting as investigating officers.

There are allegations that the current CID chief, Additional Inspector General of Police Mohammad Ali Mia, is not assigning any DIG to decide on the decisions regarding the cases pending in court. Moreover, he himself is unable to make prompt decisions. As a result, due to the lengthy process of the complaint, the court is unable to initiate the trial proceedings of the cases. However, the CID chief has denied these allegations.

Regardless of the reality, we believe it is intolerable suffering for the complainants, especially in cases involving sensitive issues like sexual assault. It has been observed that the perpetrators have fled abroad while the cases were pending in court. Therefore, considering the humane aspect, we also demand that the chargesheet will be submitted to the court as quickly as possible. We hope that the parties involved will take prompt initiatives to resolve the complexities of the cases.