Rifat murder: Court denies accused bail
A Barguna court yesterday rejected bail prayer of an accused in the Rifat Sharif murder case.
Al Kaiyum submitted the bail prayer with the District and Sessions Judge’s Court. Judge Md Asaduzzaman denied his bail after hearing from the prosecution and defence.
Besides, two more accused -- Rakibul Hasan Rifat Farajee and Tiktok Redoy -- filed their bail prayers with the Senior Judicial Magistrate’s Court, but the court did not hear those as the main case document was in the District Judge’s Court, Mojibur Haq Kislu, Al Kaiyum’s lawyer, said.
He added that the court also asked the prosecution to publish a newspaper advertisement about fugitive accused Nayeem, 17.
Md Easin Arafat, acting senior judicial magistrate, passed the order after hearing from the prosecution and the defence.
Lawyer Mojibur said six bail prayers of juvenile accused were also submitted before the Senior Judicial Magistrate’s Court yesterday. The court referred the bail prayers to the Barguna Juvenile Court for hearing.
But the Juvenile Court did not hear those as the main case document was with the district Judge’s Court.
Police had shown arrested Mohaiminul Islam Sifat, an accused in the Rifat murder case, in an attempted murder case that was filed in 2017, the lawyer said.
Twenty accused in the Rifat murder case are in jail. Two accused Musa, 22, Nayeem, 17, are on the run, while Rifat’s wife Ayesha Siddika Minni and Arian Shrabon are out on bail.
On June 26, Rifat, 25, an internet service provider, was hacked to death in broad daylight in front of Minni’s college in Barguna town.
In the CCTV footage of the incident, Minni was seen screaming and trying to save her husband from the attackers.
Police arrested Minni after a daylong interrogation on July 16. A Barguna court placed her on a five-day remand the following day. Three days later, a Barguna court recorded her statement under section 164.
On August 29, the High Court granted bail to Minni on condition that she cannot talk to the media and she will remain in her father’s custody.
On September 1, police pressed charges against Minni and 23 others for their alleged involvement in the Rifat murder, an incident that triggered a huge public outcry across the country.
On September 18, a Barguna court accepted the charge sheet against Minni and 23 others in the murder case.
The name of key accused -- Sabbir Hossain Nayan alias Nayan Bond -- has been excluded from the charges as he was killed in a “gunfight” with police on July 2, six days after the killing of Rifat.
Comments