A 16-year-old higher secondary level student has been sent to jail allegedly over killing of Begum Rokeya University student Abu Sayeed, who was allegedly shot dead by the police during the quota reform protests near the campus on July 16.
The accused is identified as Md Alfi Shahriar Mahim, 16, a higher secondary student of Rangpur Police Lines School and College.
Asked whether minor Mahim was arrested in the Sayeed murder case, Zillur Rahman, investigation officer in the case, avoided a directly reply, and told 抖阴精品 that since there were stronger protests on the following day of Abu Sayeed鈥檚 death, the police could not verify his age.
Moreover, as there was a legal obligation to produce the arrestee to court within 24 hours of arrest, the police did not have enough time to verify his age.
Mahim was arrested on July 18 and sent to jail on July 19 but the matter drew people鈥檚 attention on Wednesday after Mahim鈥檚 sister shared the incident in a Facebook post.
The post said that the family was informed through court documents that Mahim was sent to jail over the killing of Abu Sayeed.
After the post went viral on Facebook with thousands of shares, they were called to meet Rangpur Metropolitan Police commissioner Md Moniruzzaman.
Police commissioner Md Moniruzzaman, however, denied that Mahim was arrested over Abu Sayeed鈥檚 murder case.
The commissioner told 抖阴精品 that Mahim was arrested in a case filed over vandalism during the protests.
He also said that the police were not aware of Mahim鈥檚 age at the time of his arrest.
鈥楾he police did not know that he was a minor. His family also did not inform us anything,鈥� he said, adding that he had met his family members on Wednesday evening and assured them of assistance.
Mahim鈥檚 sister in her Facebook post, however, said that he went out on July 18 for school as he had a test that day but later he was informed that the test was suspended.
On his way back from school, he became stuck in the clash and got separated from his friends, the post read.
鈥榃e came to know that Mahim sustained bullet injuries in his leg and was taken to a hospital by some local people. But we could not find him in any hospitals in the city till 10:00pm,鈥� her post read.
She alleged that at that time, the police called her father and threatened to harm Mahim if the family members told anyone about the matter.
His sister wrote, 鈥榃e managed to transfer his case to the juvenile court on July 30 and the hearing date is on August 4.鈥�
She said that they were even not allowed to meet him.
In her post, she demanded justice for his brother.
On July 16, a video footage showed the police shooting at Abu Sayeed, who posed no physical threat to the law enforcers, during the quota reform demonstration near the university.
The Rangpur police, however, claimed that Abu Sayeed鈥檚 death was caused by the gunfire from the protesters, and he was not a victim of police firing.
The statement of the case the Rangpur police filed following the death of Abu Sayeed revealed their claim.
Tajhat police sub-inspector Bibhuti Bhusan Ray, who is also the in-charge of the police camp on the Begum Rokeya University campus, filed the case with the police station over Sayeed鈥檚 death and violence on the campus on July 16.
At least 2,000鈥�3,000 unidentified people, including Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir activists, were accused in the case.
According to the case鈥檚 First Information Report, the demonstrators fired shots and threw brick chunks from different directions, and at one stage, a student was seen falling to the ground when his classmates took Sayeed, 23, to Rangpur Medical College Hospital where doctor declared him dead.