A Dhaka court yesterday fixed March 18 for passing order on whether to indict the accused in blogger Rajeeb Haider murder case.
Dhaka’s 4th Additional Sessions Judge Ruhul Amin yesterday a heard on charge framing matter from both defence and prosecution.
The defence filed discharge petitions with all accused produced before the court. They are Ansarullah Bangla Team chief Mufti Jasim Uddin Rahmani; expelled NSU students Faisal Bin Nayeem alias Dip, Maksudul Hassan alias Anik, Ehsan Reza Rumman, Nayeem Sikder alias Irad, Nafiz Imtiaz, Sadman Yasir Mahmud; and former NSU student Rezwanul Azad Rana. Of them, Rana is also a prime suspect in blogger Avijit Roy murder.
Inspector Nibaran Chandra Barman of DB police submitted charge sheets against the accused on January 28 last year.
The case says Jasim’s sermons instigated the killers to attack Rajeeb. The killers held meetings with Jasim at a madrasa in Dhaka.
Rajeeb was an active member of the Shahbagh movement and vocal on social media against Jamaat-Shibir. He was hacked to death on February 15, 2013, near his Pallabi home.
Several websites, allegedly run by Shibir men, were among the first to report the murder and tried to justify the killing by terming Rajeeb “atheist.”
Victim’s father Nazim Uddin filed the murder case a day after the murder. Two weeks later, the investigating officer arrested five NSU students, none of whom directly witnessed the killing, he said in his report.
The detained NSU students reportedly confessed that they had killed Rajeeb upon directive from the chief of Ansarullah Bangla Team, a Bangladeshi follower of al-Qaeda.
Mufti Jasim was arrested along with 30 others at Barguna on August 12 last year.
