Jail super Ratna demoted for allowing Hallmark GM to meet a woman in prison

A jail superintendent of Kashimpur Central Jail-1, who had allowed a prisoner to spend time alone with a woman in a prison officer's room, has been demoted after two and a half years of suspension.

Senior Jail Superintendent Ratna Roy had previously been suspended following the incident on 24 January 2021, is now being reinstated with a demotion from the Sixth grade to Seventh grade, reads a home ministry notice.

The prisoner, Hallmark Group's General Manager Tushar Ahmed, brother-in-law of the company's Managing Director Tanvir Mahmud, met a woman inside the office of a prison official on 6 January 2021.

Ratna Roy had been held responsible for not upholding the rules of the prison and failing to ensure discipline.

She also could not safe-keep the CCTV footage of the prison and passed on the duty to her subordinates in an attempt to avoid responsibility, reads the notice.

A private TV channel published a report on 22 January 2021 using CCTV footage of Tushar and the woman taken from inside the jail on 6 January, and it became the topic of heated discussions among people across the country almost immediately.

In the video clip, Tushar was seen wandering casually in the office area of the prison. A woman entered the prison at 12:55pm, and deputy jailor Saqlain himself welcomed her at his office.

Tushar then stayed alone with the woman at the office for about 45 minutes, the footage shows. The Hallmark Group's name is connected to one of the biggest financial scandals in Bangladesh.