A Dhaka court on Monday placed three men on five-day remand each in a case filed over the death of primary school headteacher Ranjila Parveen, 56, who fell from an autorickshaw after snatchers grabbed her bag near the south plaza of the National Parliament.
Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Md Siddique Azad passed the order following a petition by the investigating officer.
The accused are Poni, alias Para Poni, alias Poni Gazi; Cedric Julian; and Rakib Hossain.
Sub-Inspector Shahin of Sher-e-Bangla Nagar police station, also the investigating officer in the case, produced the three accused before the court and sought a 10-day remand.
Lawyers Amir Uddin Amir and Shahadat Hossain Mamun, representing the accused, sought bail and urged the court to reject the remand plea.
During the hearing, the defense lawyers said the accused were not connected to the incident and urged the court to ensure that the actual perpetrators were brought to justice.
“We want the real culprits to be tried. No innocent person should be harassed,” they said.
They also claimed that the motorcycle identified in connection with the case did not match the one used to arrest the accused and alleged that the case was being diverted in another direction.
The court, however, granted five days’ remand for each of the accused.
Speaking to reporters after the hearing, Poni denied any involvement in the incident.
“We are not connected to this incident. The truth will prevail. RAB is fake. AI cameras are everywhere now, so we are not afraid. Allah will do something about this,” he said.
RAB-2 arrested the three men during an operation on Sunday and seized a Yamaha R15 motorcycle allegedly used in the snatching.
How the incident happened
According to the case statement, Parveen was the headteacher of Bagbari Government Primary School in Gabtoli upazila of Bogra.
At around 5:55am on August 29, she was traveling by auto-rickshaw with her husband, Md Abdul Matin, to see an eye doctor.
When they were on the paved road near Gate 12 of the National Parliament on Manik Mia Avenue, snatchers riding a motorcycle grabbed her bag and pulled it forcefully.
The force of the pull caused Parveen to fall from the moving auto-rickshaw onto the paved road, leaving her with a severe head injury.
She was taken in critical condition to Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital and later to Dhaka Medical College Hospital, but doctors declared her dead on the way.
Her husband filed the case at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar police station on Sunday.