World Valentine’s Day is today. The day is celebrated worldwide with great fervour. On this day, entertainment centers are crowded with couples. Give gifts to loved ones with love and various items including flowers.
On this special day, Naogaon Women and Child Torture Suppression Tribunal-2 Judge District and Sessions Judge Md. took an exceptional initiative. Mehdi Hasan Talukder. He fixed the date for the hearing of 36 cases in this court on Valentine’s Day. Each of the cases is a story of a couple who fall in love untimely.
According to court sources, a 17-year-old girl of Sapahar Upazila ran away from home holding her boyfriend’s hand after a three-year love affair. The main reason for running away from their home on July 22, 2020 was that the teenager was a follower of Sanatan Dharma. And her boyfriend was from a small ethnic group. The girl’s family arranged her marriage elsewhere. After going missing for six consecutive days, the couple was arrested by the police while buying a branch in Sapahar. After that, the boyfriend was arrested and sent to jail by the police in the kidnapping case of the girl’s father.
In another incident, a 16-year-old girl of Sapahar Upazila ran away to Mymensingh from her boyfriend’s workplace on January 9 last year due to love. After getting married, Rajmistri started living in a rented house with her husband. Then the girl returned to her home on January 22 of that year. By then her father filed a kidnapping case against her boyfriend. The police arrested the lover in that case. The court then sent her to jail and handed the girl over to her family.
Two and a half years ago. At that time, the entire country was affected by the coronavirus. A 16-year-old girl of Porsha Upazila got involved in a love affair while taking the corona vaccine. After five months of love, on July 9, 2022, she went out with her boyfriend. The lover took her to a quiet place and raped her from afternoon to evening. The lover left her early the next morning and ran away. Later, the girl’s father filed a case as a plaintiff in this incident. In this case, the police arrested the accused and sent him to jail through the court.
A girl from Dhamirhat Upazila was working as a worker in a garment factory in Dhaka. Three and a half years ago, Jovan of Joypurhat got married to the 17-year-old girl. On the day of the wedding, there was a dispute between the two parties over the food of the groom. In this incident, a week after breaking up the marriage, the girl ran away to Jovan’s house on February 28, 2020. There the two started living as husband and wife.
The girl’s father filed a kidnapping case against Jovan due to that incident. After 11 days in that case, Jovan was arrested and sent to jail by the court.
The case of 36 such couples was heard in Naogaon on World Valentine’s Day. Prosecutor (PP) Maqbul Hossain congratulated the couples who came to the court with ‘love candy’.
Judge Mehdi Hasan Talukder started the proceedings sitting in the courtroom at 11:00 am. The judge encouraged the couples present there to follow their religious teachings without falling in love prematurely, to obey the orders of their parents, to continue their studies, to be self-reliant and to engage in the welfare of the country and the nation by being educated in good education.
Mokbul Hossain, the lawyer for the state, said that today the court is sitting at a different level. Cases of incest, abduction and forced marriage were taken up for hearing today. The judge advised the concerned to study as well as religious values and obey the orders of the elders.
Rafiqul Islam Bachchu, President of Naogaon District Lawyers Association, said that if the cases were heard on different days, the judge could not have given the same advice to everyone. He took the exceptional decision of taking the initiative to hear the cases on the same day.
Moshiur Rahman/SR/GKS
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