Akhaura OC apologises for reporting Hajj aspirant dead

Akhaura police station officer-in-charge (OC) Mosharraf Hossain Tarafdar on Monday secured exemption from a rule that challenged the legality of misreporting a hajj aspirant dead after he offered unconditional apology.

The High Court (HC) accepted the apology of the OC and exempted him after hearing a writ petition.

The court also directed the government to take necessary steps so that Azad Hossain Bhuiyan, the man who was reported as dead, can go to Saudi Arabia for hajj.

The HC bench of Justice Syed Muhammad Dastagir Husain and Justice Md Ataur Rahman Khan passed the order. Azad had filed the writ challenging the legality of the report.

Azad’s lawyer Md Kaiser Zahid Bhuiyan said that being a businessman Azad cherished for long to perform Hajj this year and obtained a passport and applied through a travel agency for registration as a pilgrim.

As per the procedure, police verification was conducted by Moshaarrof and he met Azad and scrutinised his documents.

The lawyer said that in presence of some witnesses, Moshaarrof demanded bribe but Azad refused to bribe him.

He said that the police officer submitted a police verification report mentioning Azad as dead and the religious affairs ministry later put his name in the re-registration form as dead.

The report was posted on the website of the ministry of religious affairs on June 20.

The court had asked the police officer to appear before it on July 23.