Abrar Murder: Indictment Hearing Delayed to Feb 17

A Dhaka court set Feb 17 to hold a hearing on charge framing in the murder case of BUET student Abrar Fahad.

Thursday (Jan 30) was set to hold a hearing on the matter but the date was changed by Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge KM Imrul Qayes.

The court on January 21 took cognizance of the charge sheet filed by the police detective branch (DB) on November 13, 2019. In the presence of the 22, of the number of 25 charged in the case, the court had issued the order of cognizance.

On Tuesday (Jan 21), Metropolitan Sessions Judge KM Imrul Qayes fixed the date after the court took cognizance of the charges against 25 students of the university, accused in the case, said Public Prosecutor Taposh Kumar Pal.

On Jan 13, Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Muhammad Kaisarul Islam ordered to forward the case to the Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge Court for the remaining trail.

On Nov 13, 2019, the investigators charged 25 people over the murder. The police said that during the probe, it was revealed that 11 people directly took part in the killing while the rest of the 14 were involved in some way or the other. The investigators filed the name of 60 witnesses and 21 pieces of evidence with the court in the charge sheet.

On Nov 18 last, the court ordered an arrest warrant and on Nov 13, inspector of DB, Wahiduzzaman submitted a charge sheet at the court accusing 25 persons.

The charge sheet mentions that there is evidence of the involvement of 19 persons mentioned in the case and six others.

Of the accused, 17 from the ones mentioned in the case and 5 from outside, a total of 22 persons have been arrested.

A group of BUET unit leaders and activists from the Bangladesh Chhatra League on Oct 7 brutalized Abrar to death allegedly for its social media post criticizing the Feni River water-sharing deal between Bangladesh and India.

Abrar's father filed a murder case against 19 people with the capital's Chawkbazar police the day of the murder.

The killing of Abrar sparked protests across the country with protesters demanding justice for him and capital punishment for the murderers.