The Supreme Court yesterday upheld its previous order that stayed the bail granted to Sadman Yasir Mahmud, a former North South University student who is a chargesheeted accused in blogger and architect Ahmed Rajeeb Haider murder case.
A five-member full bench headed by Chief Justice Md Muzammel Hossain passed the order after disposing of a state plea filed against the bail, granted by the High Court on June 1 for six months.
Sadman is now in jail as he surrendered on June 24 before the trial court after the chamber judge had stayed his bail on June 11, said BM Elias, lawyer of the accused. He had been released from jail on June 4.
Attorney General Mahbubey Alam contended for the state during yesterday’s hearing.
Rajeeb, an organiser of anti-war criminal Shahbagh movement, was hacked to death near his house in the capital’s Pallabi on February 15 last year. He used to write on different blogs under the pseudonym “Thaba Baba.”
Following his death, Islamists labelled him as “atheist” and also set up a blogsite after his name containing derogatory remarks about Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) to establish their claim.
On February 18 this year, a Dhaka court took into cognisance the charge sheet pressed against Sadman and six other North South University students (who were later expelled), and Mufti Jasimuddin Rahmania, chief of Islamist outfit Ansarullah Bangla Team – a Bangladeshi follower of al-Qaeda.
The detained NSU students reportedly confessed that they had killed Rajeeb upon the directives of Mufti Jasim. Also the chief of Markajul Ulum Al Islami from Dhaka’s Mohammadpur, Mufti Jasim was arrested along with 30 of his followers at his house in Barguna on August 12 last year.