While we mindlessly debate pros and cons of the Hasina’s arrests, not a single person cared to discuss the merit of the case. You can hate Hasina or Khaleda as much as you want and you may think public hanging is the only possible punishment for these two leaders, but you, at the same time can not forget that we are not living in a jungle where we can do to people whatever we want. So let’s step back and take a look at the facts. But before AL supporters start cheering on the tone of my post, think for one second whether you asked for due process when Tareque Rahman was arrested in a similar extortion case. If you did not, then you have also lost your moral right to ask for due process in Hasina’s case. Its not about supporting one person over another or being AL or BNP or army sympathizer. Its purely about what kind of precedence this government is setting in the name of checking corruption. Now those who talk about people not caring about this case and caring more about inflation amazes me that they think these issues are not related. Why we shouldn’t be caring about this issue which is setting the trend for the coming days? Yesterday it was Tareque, today it is Hasina, tomorrow it will be you.

Now let’s look at the case for which Sheikh Hasina was denied bail. The CTG is not accusing Hasina or Joy to have made 300 million or for creating a shopping mall in Florida as suggested by some commenters. Court of law can not run on rumours and hearsays. But the accuser is accusing Shaikh Selim of extorting money from him for a business deal and because Mr. Selim threatened to use Hasina and her power if he didn’t get his way, it implied that Hasina was a party to this scam as well.

One Mr. Ajam J. Chowdhury filed an extortion case in June 13th this year. The exact case report in verbatim is here:

In the June 12 first information report (FIR), Azam mentioned that Shiekh Hasina’s cousin the then lawmaker Sheikh Selim tried to be local agent of the Russian company TPE. Selim on different occasions tried to influence the TPE chief to serve his purpose, he added.

As all his attempts turned futile, Selim started putting pressure, and Azam met Selim at his Banani residence with the proposal of appointing him consultant for the second phase of the work and told him that he would be given a large amount of commission during the phase, the FIR said.

Angry at the proposal, Selim threatened to stop the work with the help of Hasina (the then PM) if the commission was not paid. Negotiations on payment of the money continued at Selim’s residence.

Selim also threatened that the complainant would not be able to withdraw any bill from the PDB if he failed to pay him commission from the work. Threats were issued between June and July, 2000, the complainant said.

In July, 2000, they reached a verbal agreement for payment of two per cent commission amounting $5.8 lakh (equivalent to a little over Tk 2.99 crore) to Selim, Azam said. The commission was paid at Selim’s residence in eight cheques of Standard Chartered Bank and Southeast Bank from October 24, 2000 to February 14, 2001, he added.

Selim did not interfere with the work after getting the commission, the complainant said, adding that many people including executives of his company are aware of the payment of commission to Selim.

This was the FIR report as quoted in Daily Star. Run your searches to see how many times Hasina’s name was mentioned in it. There seems to be just one mention where it says Selim threatened to stop the work with the help of Hasina (the then PM) if the commission was not paid.

Now it seems the entire dealing was done by Shaikh Selim where he used Hasina’s name to threaten the accuser. Was Hasina involved directly in it? The accusation seems to be purely circumstantial. Now we already have Shaikh Selim’s edited interrogation tape. He may well be saying that he shared the booty with Hasina and the entire case and the he-said vs she said can be played in the court of law but what boggles my mind is that how can this be a non-bailable case? Am I to believe that I can file a case against an adviser in the current government of extortion and mention the chief adviser’s name on the side and Mr. Fakhruddin will be taken to jail indefinitely at a non-bailable offense? Of course not. Then it is simply clear that the lower judiciary is following the “telephone justice” that Pakistanis are so used to. Please don’t think I am saying for one second that Hasina is innocent or she should not be tried. She should be by all means if a case has been filed against her. But let her and all our citizens have their day in court. The CTG which is preaching moral superiority over all must set the standard.

I have been heavily critical of Daily Star and our media’s activist stand of giving a blank check to the current government in the past. Albeit delayed, Mr. Anam has risen to the occassion and wrote a very balanced commentary today playing a role he should have played all along as the leading editor of the country. When DS and CPD, writes against the government, you can tell the honeymoon period of CTG is over.