Police have arrested another accused in a case filed over the murder of innocent youth Bishwajit Das, a tailor who was hacked to death near Victoria Park in Old Dhaka during the opposition’s road blockade programme on December 9 last year.
Golam Mostafa, 26, a master’s student of social work department of Jagannath University (JnU) is an activist of pro-Awami League Bangladesh Chhatra League. He hails from Rajoir village of Saturia upazila in Manikganj.
With this, police have so far arrested eight of the 21 leaders and activists of Chhatra League who have been accused in the case.
Based on information that Mostafa returned home, plainclothes police raided the area and arrested him at his home at around 9:30pm on Sunday, Mohammad Hedaetul Islam Bhuiyan, officer-in-charge of Saturia police station told the Dhaka Tribune.
He said the drive was conducted following an arrest warrant issued by Sutrapur police in Dhaka. Mostafa was produced before the Manikganj Judicial Magistrate Court 4 Tuesday morning.
Both print and electronic media exposed the video footage and photographs of the killers who all belong to the JnU Chhatra League.
On the day of the killing, Mahbubul Alam, a sub-inspector of Sutrapur police station, filed the case.
Detective Branch of Police pressed the charges on March 5. After that, two more months have elapsed but the charges are yet to be framed. The last hearing date of the case was Sunday; but it was deferred as the police failed to produce the arrestees at the court due to the opposition’s shutdown.
Meanwhile, Bishwajit’s family members are unhappy over the delay in trial process by the law enforcement agency.
Talking to the Dhaka Tribune on Monday, the victim’s elder brother Uttam Kumar Das said they were quite unhappy with the trial process. He said earlier the law enforcers sometimes met the family and updated them about the progress. But they recently stopped contacting the family.
“We just want justice and punishment of the accused who killed my innocent brother. He had no political affiliation,” he said.
Among the 21 accused in the murder case, seven Chhatra League activists are already in jail: Rafiqul Islam, Mahfuzur Rahman, Rasheduzzaman Shaon, Emdadul Haque, Kayum Haque, HM Kibria and Saiful Islam. Among them, four gave confessional statements in court.
The 13 other accused are key suspect Rajon Talukder, Younus Ali, Kaiyum alias Tipu, Mostofa, Pavel, Tomal, Alauddin, Imran Hossain, Tahsin, Alauddin, Limon, Al-Amin, Obaidul Kader and Aziz.
Asked about the case’s progress, Sanowar Hossain, additional deputy commissioner of DB police, also the coordinator of the murder case, told the Dhaka Tribune that they had sent messages to all concern police stations of the country to arrest the criminals.
