A Dhaka court has granted a five-day remand for Aminul Islam Raju, accused of helping the prime suspect in the killing of Inqilab Moncho spokesperson Sharif Osman Hadi evade arrest.
Dhaka Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Awlad Hossain Mohammad Junaid passed the order on Wednesday.
Earlier, police arrested Raju from the city’s Mirpur section-11 area at the early hours of today.
Investigation Officer Faisal Ahmed of the Detective Branch (DB) sought a 10-day remand for Raju, but after hearing the petition, the court granted a five-day remand.
During the hearing, the magistrate expressed dissatisfaction over the delay in producing the accused before the court and sought explanations from the investigation officer, the officer-in-charge of the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court lock-up and the sub-inspector of the prosecution division.
Subsequently, the court issued show-cause notices to the General Register Office (GRO) of the concerned Paltan Police Station and the officer-in-charge of the court lock-up.
The court also directed the investigation officer to explain within the next 15 working days the reasons for producing the accused late.
State prosecutor Kaiyum Hossain told the court that Raju had helped main accused Faisal Karim Masud go into hiding near the border and had maintained contact with another absconding accused, Philip, while spreading misleading information to shield Faisal.
The investigation officer claimed that Raju had provided financial assistance for the murder and had detailed knowledge of the entire plan.
According to the remand petition, after the shooting of Hadi, Raju contacted absconding accused Philip through a relative and provided financial support to Faisal and other accused, directly helping them remain on the run.
Although Raju disclosed some information during preliminary interrogation, he avoided many key issues, prompting the need for intensive questioning to uncover the main mystery behind Hadi’s murder and identify the whereabouts of other accused, the petition said.
Sharif Osman Hadi was seriously injured in a shooting by miscreants on Box Culvert Road in Paltan on 12 December and was later taken to Singapore for advanced treatment, where he died last Thursday.
Following his death, a case initially filed as attempted murder with Paltan Police Station was converted into a regular murder case.
