File photo.
Court reporter //

The documents (case dockets or CDs) of 1,911 cases in the Chittagong court are not available. Lawyers say that these documents of various cases including murder, drugs, smuggling, explosions are very important for judicial work. Without the documents, it will be difficult to prove the crime.

Chittagong Metropolitan Sessions Judge Court Public Prosecutor (PP) Mofizul Haque Bhuiyan filed a general diary (GD) at the city’s Kotwali police station on Sunday due to the lack of documents.

The GD mentioned that the case dockets of 28 to 30 courts were kept in the Chittagong Metropolitan PP office. Due to lack of space in the PP office, the case dockets of 1,911 cases were kept in plastic bags wrapped in polythene on the veranda in front of the PP office since April 24, 2023.

The documents were lost between December 13 and December 31 as the court’s office was closed during the vacation. Despite extensive searching, they could not be found. An application was made to keep the matter in the police station’s diary.

Public Prosecutor Mofizul Haque Bhuiyan told the media that he did not understand who or what took the CDs of 1,911 cases. In response to the question of why the documents of important cases were kept on the balcony for so long, he said, “I took charge a few days ago. There is no room available to keep the documents. A room was requested. My room is full of documents.”

Kotwali Police Station Officer-in-Charge Abdul Karim said yesterday evening that the police are investigating the GD filed in the case of the loss of 1,911 case documents kept in front of the Metropolitan PP’s office.

The Metropolitan PP’s office is located on the third floor of the Chittagong Court Building located at Kotwali Crossing. Next to it is the courtroom and the private rooms of the Metropolitan Sessions Judge’s Court. Nearby are the courts of other judges. The court building is bustling with lawyers and trial seekers throughout the day. But security is supposed to be beefed up in the court building since evening. Lawyers are surprised by the disappearance of 1,911 case documents from the court’s balcony in front of the PP’s office. They are demanding a proper investigation into the incident.

When asked, Chittagong District Bar Association President Nazim Uddin Chowdhury said that CDs are very important in judicial work. The CD has to be submitted to the court along with the charge sheet. The investigation officer of the case writes the details of the continuous progress of the case on the CD. If the investigation officer changes, the new officer also writes the details on the same CD. He testifies in the court accordingly. If there is a CD, it is convenient to give testimony even after 5 to 10 years. Otherwise, there is a risk of the case being damaged.

Nazim Uddin Chowdhury also said that the disappearance of case documents from an important place like the court is not a small matter. We need to find out who or what is involved in their disappearance. He believes that the accused may do this to take advantage of the case.

We will welcome any of your opinions.