Photo: Bonik Barta The interim government has established two separate
committees at the district and ministry levels to recommend the withdrawal of
politically motivated and harassment-based cases filed against party workers
and innocent individuals due to political vendetta and other reasons. A notice
issued by the Public Security Division of the Ministry of Home Affairs on
Sunday (September 22) confirmed this information.
In the district-level
committee, the district magistrate will serve as the chairperson, and the
additional district magistrate will act as the member secretary. The police
superintendent (or a deputy commissioner of police for metropolitan areas) and
the public prosecutor (or metropolitan public prosecutor for metropolitan
cases) will also be members.
The district committee’s
guidelines state that applications for withdrawing politically motivated cases
must be submitted to the district magistrate by December 31.
The application must include the First Information Report (FIR) and, where applicable,
a certified copy of the charge sheet. Within seven working days of receiving
the application, the district magistrate will forward the request to the
district public prosecutor (or metropolitan public prosecutor) for their
opinion. The public prosecutor must send their opinion to the district
magistrate within 15 working days of receiving the application.
Upon receiving the
public prosecutor’s opinion, the district magistrate will present the
application to the district committee within
7 working days. If the committee finds that the case was filed
with political or other malicious intent, it will recommend the case’s
withdrawal to the government. The district magistrate will forward this
recommendation, along with the FIR, charge sheet, and other relevant documents,
to the Ministry of Home Affairs within 45 working days of receiving the
application.
Meanwhile, a separate
committee has been formed at the ministry level, with the Adviser to the
Ministry of Law, Justice, and Parliamentary Affairs serving as the chairperson.
The Deputy Secretary/Senior Assistant Secretary/Assistant Secretary of the
Law-1 branch of the Public Security Division will serve as the member secretary.
According to the
ministry-level committee’s guidelines, after receiving recommendations from
district committees, the ministry committee will review the suggestions,
identify the cases eligible for withdrawal, and take steps to withdraw them.
Politically motivated cases under the Anti-Corruption Commission Act of 2004
cannot be withdrawn without a written order from the Commission. Therefore, a list of such cases will be prepared, and the
next steps will be determined later.
