The High Court on Monday issued a rule asking the government to explain why former superintendent of police (SP) Babul Akter, arrested in a case over the murder of his wife in 2016, should not be granted bail.
A divisional bench of Justice AKM Asaduzzaman and Justice Kazi Ejarul Haque Akondo issued the rule after hearing the bail petition of Babul Akter.
The respondents were asked to respond to the rule in the next two weeks.
Senior lawyer Mansurul Haque Chowdhury and lawyer Mohammad Shishir Monir appeared for his bail while Deputy Attorney General Md Aminul Islam and Assistant Attorney General Md Jahangir Alam and Md Humayun Kabir represented the state.
On January 6, a Chittagong court denied bail to Babul Akter in the case. He was shown arrested on January 9.
On June 5, 2016, unidentified assailants gunned down Babul's wife Mahmuda Khanam Mitu at the port city's GEC intersection while she was going to drop her son Mahir Akhter, 7, for a bus of Chittagong Cantonment Public School and College.
Soon after the crime, Babul filed a murder case at Panchlaish police station against three unidentified men.
The case was transferred to the Police Bureau Investigation (PBI) in 2019 after Mitu's father, himself a retired police officer, filed a complaint against the CMP's mishandling of the case.
On May 12, 2021, the PBI submitted its final report and arrested Babul Akter in another case filed by Mitu's father and since then he has been in prison.
Babul Akhter also filed a no-confidence petition against the PBI report on October 14.
On November 3 last year, a Chittagong court rejected the PBI's final report and ordered it to conduct further investigation. Later, the PBI found Babul's involvement in his wife's murder.