person without warrant on reasonable suspicion. Section 54 and 167 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898 are the main legal provisions, which facilitate torture in Bangladesh. Section 54 gives arbitrary and wide power to the police to arrest a person without warrant on reasonable suspicion. The word ‘reasonable suspicion’ is not defined and as such creates ample scope of the misuse by police. However, the power of arrest is qualified by the existence of any one or more of the nine grounds expressly specified in the section.21 23. Section 167 empowers the magistrate to grant detention of an accused in police custody of what is popularly known as ‘remand’,22 - remains main instrument for custodial torture. Section 167 provides that the maximum period of remand which a Magistrate can authorise is 15 days as a whole. If remand is ordered, the Magistrate must record his reasons. Another precondition is that unless the accused is brought before the court, no remand order can be passed. Remand in Bangladesh is mostly used for putting the accused on police custody. Although it is not mentioned that remand can be allowed for the purpose of interrogation, the prevailing practice is that accused is taken on remand only for the purpose of interrogation or extorting information from the accused through interrogaration. Magistrates are legally bound to examine reasonable grounds before granting remand but in reality, they hardly check the police diary of the arrested persons nor record the reasons for granting remand.23According to section 167(3), remand should be granted only in the custody of police, which means that the place of remand must be police station and only the police can have access for interrogation during remand. 24. Apart from above provisions, section 46, 55 and 151 of Cr.P.C. are also abused leading to torture by police. Section 46 of Cr. P.C. allows the use of ‘all means necessary’ by the police to affect arrest. Section 55 of Cr. P.C permits an officer to arrest any suspicious person whom the 21 See section 54 of Cr. P.C. 54.-(1) Any police-officer may, without an order from a Magistrate and without a warrant, arrestfirst, any person who has been concerned in any cognizable offence or against whom a reasonable complaint has been made or credible information has been received, or a reasonable suspicion exists of his having been so concerned; secondly, any person having in his possession without lawful excuse, the burden of proving which excuse shall lie on such person, any implement of house-breaking; thirdly, any person who has been proclaimed as an offender either under this Code or by order of the Government; fourthly, any person in whose possession anything is found which may reasonably be suspected to be stolen property and who may reasonably be suspected of having committed an offence with reference to such thing; fifthly, any person who obstructs a police-officer while in the execution his duty, or who has escaped, or attempts to escape, from lawful custody; sixthly, any person reasonably suspected of being a deserter from the armed forces of Bangladesh; seventhly, any person who has been concerned in, or against whom a reasonable complaint has been made or credible information has been received or a reasonable suspicion exists of his having been concerned in, any act committed at any place out of Bangladesh, which, if committed in Bangladesh, would have been punishable as an offence, and for which he is, under any law relating to extradition or under the Fugitive Offenders Act, 1881, or otherwise, liable to be apprehended or detained in custody in Bangladesh; eighthly, any released convict committing a breach of any rule made under section 565, sub-section (3); ninthly, any person for whose arrest a requisition has been received from another police-officer. 22 The term ‘remand’ is not mentioned in this section. But it has been used in sec. 344, which permits the courts to send an accused of a pending case on remand by warrant for the period of its adjournment of hearing. 23 M Rafiqul Islam and S M Solaiman, “Torture under Police Remand in Bangladesh: A Culture of Impunity for Gross Violations of Human Rights”, Asia Pacific Journal on Human Rights and the Law, Vol. 2, (2003), pp. 1-27, at p. 20. 13