Ekramul Murder: SC asks Minar to surrender

Ekramul Haque

The Supreme Court today directed Mahtab Uddin Chowdhury Minar, the prime accused in Fulgazi upazila chairman Ekramul Haque killing case, to surrender before the lower court concerned in Feni within two weeks.

The chamber judge of the Appellate Division also stayed a High Court order that granted him bail in the case.

Justice Hasan Foez Siddique passed the stay order upon a petition by the government.

Attorney General Mahbubey Alam told The Daily Star that Minar will have to surrender to the Court of Chief Judicial Magistrate of Feni within two weeks in connection with murder case.

If he does not surrender in two weeks, the chief judicial magistrate will issue an arrest warrant against him, Alam added.       

Ekramul Haque, 45, also president of the upazila unit of Awami League, was shot and burnt to death in his car in Feni town on May 20.

Rezaul Haque Jasim, brother of the slain upazila chairman, filed the murder case with Feni Model Police Station the same day, accusing Mahtab and 30 to 35 unnamed people.

Police have so far arrested 31 people. Of them, 16 gave confessional statements before the court.

A team of the Detective Branch (DB) of police had arrested Mahtab, the lone named accused in the case, from a house in Kachukhet area near Dhaka Cantonment in the capital on May 27.

Following a petition filed by Mahtab, the HC on July 15 granted him six months’ bail in the case, and he was released from jail on July 17.

The government today filed the petition with the SC seeking stay on the HC order of bail, saying that there are specific allegations against Mahtab of his involvement in the killing and investigation is going on in this regard.

In this position, he should not be granted bail, the government said in the petition.