A Chattogram court has once again denied bail to Chinmoy Krishna Das Brahmachari, former organiser of ISKCON, in five separate cases including the murder of lawyer Saiful Islam Alif.
The bail hearing took place on Thursday at around 11:15am in the court of Chattogram Metropolitan Sessions Judge Hasanul Islam, who passed the order following the hearing.
Assistant Public Prosecutor (APP) of the Chattogram Metropolitan Court, Md Raihanul Wazed Chowdhury, confirmed the development.
A heavy police presence was observed at the court premises due to the sensitivity of the case. Chinmoy’s lawyer, Apurba Kumar Bhattacharya, who arrived from Dhaka, was provided with strict security during the proceedings.
Court sources said that Apurba Bhattacharya argued in favour of the bail petitions, while the state counsel opposed them. After hearing both sides, the court rejected bail in all five cases.
The bail petitions were filed in connection with cases involving the murder of lawyer Alif, attacks on police at the court premises, and vandalism. Although Chinmoy was not named in the initial FIRs, police later submitted findings indicating his involvement, upon which the court allowed him to be shown arrested in these cases.
He has also been interrogated at the jail gate with court permission in each case.
Earlier, on June 3, a Chattogram metropolitan magistrate had also denied bail in the same cases. Following that, his legal team appealed to the Metropolitan Sessions Judge’s Court.
Chinmoy Krishna Das, also the spokesperson of an organisation named Sanatani Jagoron Jote, was arrested by detectives from Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka on November 25 last year in connection with a sedition case filed with Kotwali Police Station in Chattogram. He was produced before the court the next day and sent to jail.
Following the court’s order to send him to jail, a group of Chinmoy’s followers created chaos in the Chattogram court premises, trapping the prison van carrying him for nearly three hours. Law enforcement, including police and BGB, had to use batons and sound grenades to disperse the crowd, sparking violent clashes.
During the unrest, the clashes spread from Laldighi to Kotwali areas, and lawyer Saiful Islam Alif was brutally hacked to death.
A total of six cases were filed with Kotwali Police Station in relation to the incident, including for the murder, attacks on police, obstruction of official duty, vandalism, assaults on lawyers and litigants, and explosions. Chinmoy was arrested in five of those cases.
APP Raihanul Wazed Chowdhury stated that the Chattogram Metropolitan Sessions Judge Court rejected Chinmoy Krishna Das’s bail in the cases filed over the November 26 incident. He was not physically brought to court for the hearing, which was attended by his lawyer from Dhaka.