High Court orders government to pay medical compensation to man shot by police in 2019
The High Court has ordered the government to pay 200,000 taka within one month for the medical treatment of Sahadat Hossain, who sustained critical, life-altering injuries after being shot by police seven years ago. The directive was issued on Wednesday by a High Court bench comprised of Justice Khizir Ahmed Choudhury and Justice Md. Ziaul Haque following a preliminary hearing on a writ petition.
Beyond the interim medical payment, the court issued a rule questioning why the state should not be compelled to pay 50 million taka in compensation for the incident. The incident occurred on March 14, 2019, in front of the Kamarkanda police box in Sirajdikhan, Munshiganj, when Sahadat, then 20, was shot by law enforcement officers.
According to the legal team representing the petitioner, the court has directed the Secretary of the Security Services Division of the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Inspector General of Police to facilitate the payment. The rule further requires the secretaries of the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Law, the Inspector General of Police, and the officers involved in the shooting—specifically then-Assistant Sub-Inspector Shahidul Islam and Constable Saiful—to provide a formal response to the court.
The writ petition was filed by Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK) last year, citing media reports that highlighted both the initial incident and the subsequent lack of accountability for the victim. During the court proceedings, attorneys Syeda Nasrin and Md. Shahinuzzaman represented the petitioner, while the state was represented by Deputy Attorney Generals Md. Faruk Hossain and Saifuzzaman Tuhin, alongside Assistant Attorney General Md. Fuad Hassan.
The legal action follows an investigation by the National Human Rights Commission, which was prompted by the intervention of ASK. In its findings, the commission stated that the incident was a tragic case of police negligence that left a young man permanently disabled, asserting that the state cannot evade responsibility. The commission had previously recommended an initial payment of 200,000 taka to the victim, noting that despite their findings regarding the negligence of the officers involved, the compensation had remained unpaid.
