One of the much-talked about incidents of abduction in the CHT is the abduction of Kalpana Chakma who was, allegedly, kidnapped by a group of army and Village Defense Party (VDP) men on 12 June 1996 from her home at New Lalyaghona under Baghaichari Upazila in Rangamati District. It has been 20 years since Kalpana Chakma was abducted. Still none of the perpetrators has been brought to justice. The update of the Kalpana Chakma’s case was scheduled is for 8 May 2016. The Investigating Officer was scheduled to submit, on this day, an investigation report to the court for the 30th time since her abduction. However, as the investigating officer failed to submit the report, a new date 12 July 2016 was fixed. But the scheduled date came and went by without submitting any investigating reports. It was learnt from the assigned lawyer Advocate Juwel Dewan of BLAST that many such dates were, in the meantime, fixed up and as usual they went by before a date on 8 May 2016 was once again fixed. Unfortunately, even on that set date the court did not receive any investigation report. A new date 12 July 2016 was again set for producing the investigation reports.
Kalpana Chakma, the then organizing secretary of Hill Women’s Federation, was allegedly abducted on 12 June 1996 at mid-night from her home at New Lalyaghona in Baghaichari Upazila under Rangamati District by a group of army and Village Defense Party (VDP) men. On the same night, when Kalpana was kidnapped, the perpetrators also allegedly tried to shoot two of her elder brothers dead in front of their house. Lal Bihari Chakma, one of the elder brothers of Kalpana, was able to identify Lt. Ferdous Kaisar Khan, the then Commander of Kajoichari army camp and Md. Nurul Haque and Md. Saleh Ahmmed, VDP Platoon Commanders. In the face of a tremendous protest, the government formed a 3-member inquiry committee headed by retired justice Abdul Jalil after three months of the incident. The other two members of the committee were Dr. Anupam Sen, professor of Sociology Department of Chittagong University and the then Divisional Commissioner of Chittagong division. The committee failed to rescue Kalpana Chakma and even to identify the perpetrators.
Kalindi Kumar Chakma (Kalicharan), elder brother of Kalpana Chakma along with Diptiman Chakma, local UP Chairman, informed the Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) of Baghaichari Upazila of the incident on the same day. After dilly-dallying for long, the police finally accepted the complaint as a case (no 2, dated 12/06/1996, Section 364). On 17 January 1997 the case was transferred to the District Special Branch. Later the case was again transferred to Baghaichari Police Station on 26 December 2004. After 14 years, on 21 May 2010, police submitted the final probe report replete with deliberately misleading contents, allegedly, to save the perpetrators from being accused. Kalicharan, complainant, protested against the flawed probe report of the police. Later on 2 September 2010, the court ordered the Crime Investigation Department (CID) of Police for further investigation of the case. On 26 September 2012, a final report was submitted on behalf of the CID, Chittagong Zone. In that report, the CID argued that they could not find the victim. The complainant again expressed his disagreement with the inquiry report and demanded once again for further investigation. On 16 January 2013, the court handed over the case to the Superintendent of Police of Rangamati district. On 22 December 2013 the court ordered to collect DNA of Kalindi Kumar Chakma and Lal Bihari Chakma, both elder brothers of Kalpana Chakma claiming it as a part of the investigation. This directive is a deliberate harassment to the Kalapana’s family to mislead the case. After a hearing on 8 May 2016, the court again set the date of hearing on 12 July 2016.Thecourt hearings of the case of Kalpana Chakma have been continuing for years together without showing any significant progress in sight.
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Kapaeeng Foundation
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