Considerable stepped up judicial activism on the whole and some proactive moves on the part of the High Court in particular have been noted in recent months. But there are some high profile cases which are etched in the public conception in which lack of progress in meeting the ends of justice continue to trouble the public psyche. In fact people in general are in a rather outraged mood over non progress in these cases. Only a few days ago, the press in remembrance carried a number of reports on passing of the first year after the murder of one Sohagi Jahan Tonu in Comilla Cantonment area. The girl was gang raped before being bestially murdered. The father of the deceased has been running from pillar to post seeking and pleading for justice. But one year down the road hardly any signs are there to show that investigations into the case have reached a position for the police to submit charge-sheet.
The Tonu rape and murder case received exceptionally high attention of the media for understandable reasons. All sensitive people and quarters in the country expressed their vow to go on demanding exemplary punishment of the killers who were discussed to be very powerful and influential. The justified uproar created by the case and speculations of successful cover up actions by the perpetrators of the crime, turned the Tonu murder case into a litmus test of governance of sort. People could generally get back their faith in the legal processes if there had been clear evidences that there would be no lack of resolve on the part of those who matter to identify her killers and give them appropriate punishment. But the latest news on this case all say that a mysterious clampdown has occurred aiming to quash the case in the bud.
Like Tonu's case, no less in the limelight has been the Mitu murder case started about ten months ago. The victim, the wife of an Additional Superintendent of the Police (ASP), was murdered by hired killers. Here also allegations are noted of interferences in the investigation process that have so far somewhat shielded the probable order giver for the murder. Then, there is this five-year-long unsolved mystery of the double murder of the journalist couple, Sagar-Runi. The then Home Minister pledged to find out the murderers within 48 hours. Obviously, she had to eat her own words and her successors also could do no better. Police investigations yielded considerable results but that report was curiously never disclosed. The case was transferred to RAB on the justification that it would be more efficiently investigated. But even the court has had no response to its order to RAB that its findings so far must be submitted to it immediately. The growing clamor that justice is not for the weak and the meek but for the rich and powerful, might become pervasive if justice is not seen to be done quickly in these and some other similar cases.
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