Petition to file sedition case against former CECs Raqib, Huda, Awal in Chattogram
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A petition has been filed at a Chattogram court to register a case against the three chief election commissioners and the commission secretaries during the Awami League government’s tenure for sedition.
The petition accuses 18 suspects, including Awami League President Sheikh Hasina and General Secretary Obaidul Quader, reports bdnews24.com.
Ekramul Karim, former general secretary of the Chattogram Metropolitan unit of the BNP, made the petition at the court of Chattogram Metropolitan Magistrate Kazi Shariful Alam on Wednesday.
In the course of their duty, the accused committed treason by violating the constitution, breaking their oaths and breaching the trust and confidence of the people of the country by putting on 'farces' in the name of elections, the petition said.
The plaintiff's lawyer Kafil Uddin Chowdhury told bdnews24.com, "The court has taken our application into cognisance and asked an officer of the rank of assistant commissioner of the Chittagong Metropolitan Police (CMP) to submit a report after an investigation."
The accused are Kazi Raqibuddin Ahmad who served as CEC in the 2014 election, election commissioners Abu Hafiz, Md Javed Ali, Md Abdul Mubarak and Md Shahnewaz; former CEC KM Nurul Huda, election commissioners Rafiqul Islam, Kavita Khanam and Shahadat Hossain Chowdhury and Election Commission secretary Helal Uddin Ahmed, who served in the 2018 elections; chief election commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal, and election commissioners Ahsan Habib Khan, Begum Rasheda Sultana, Md Alamgir and Md Anisur Rahman and Election Commission secretary Jahangir Alam, who served in the 2024 general election.
The petition mentions that Hasina and Quader should be charged as the leaders, instigators and ‘fake parliament leaders’ of these three elections.
In addition, the petition asks to identify the 'fake' national parliamentarians and government officials (including district administrators) who cooperated and participated in these three 'voterless farce' elections have also been requested to be added as suspects to the case. However, their full names and addresses were not mentioned in the application.
The case has been filed under Sections 124 (a), 419, 420, 37 and 115 of the Penal Code for holding three parliamentary polls without people's participation and declaring non-elected members of parliament in violation of the oath of protection, support and security provisions of the constitution.
Advocate Kafil said, "Due to illegal activities, fake elections without the people's participation and the declaration of non-elected members of parliament, people's trust and confidence in all constitutional institutions including the Election Commission, and the national parliament has been lost.”
“This is in violation of Article 7(a), (2) and (3) of the Constitution. Hence they are charged with sedition.”
Plaintiff Ekramul told bdnews24.com, “The people of the country could not vote in these three elections. They took the 5-7 percent turnouts in the elections and declared them to be 40 percent. By organising such elections, they have violated the constitution, broken their oaths and cheated.”
"The so-called parliamentarians who were elected through these fake elections, who enjoyed the salaries and other benefits – we have also requested that they return those to the state.”