Abrar Rahat’s Death: Court frames charges against Prothom Alo editor, 8 others

A Dhaka court yesterday framed charges against the Prothom Alo's Editor and Publisher Matiur Rahman and eight others in a case filed over the death of Dhaka Residential Model College student Naimul Abrar Rahat.

The court, however, discharged Prothom Alo's Deputy Editor Anisul Hoque as it found no grounds to frame charges against him.

The other accused are Kabir Bakul, head of events and activation of Kishor Alo; Shuvashish Pramanik Shuvo and Shah Paran Tushar, assistants at events and activation of Kishor Alo; Mahitul Alam Pavel, senior assistant editor of Kishor Alo; and stage decorators Jasim Uddin Topu, Mosharraf Hossain, Md Sujan and Kamrul Hawlader.

Matiur and eight others, now on bail, pleaded not guilty and demanded justice after Judge KM Emrul Kayesh of the Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court of Dhaka read out the charges to them.

Before that, the court dismissed five other petitions submitted by their lawyers for discharging them from the case.

The court then fixed December 14 for starting trial of the case.

On November 1 last year, Abrar, a ninth-grader, was electrocuted during the anniversary programme of Prothom Alo's youth magazine Kishor Alo.

The victim's father Mojibur Rahman filed the case with the Fourth Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court in Dhaka on November 6 last year.

In the complaint, Mojibur said his son was electrocuted and became unconscious around 4:30pm on November 1 last year while attending the programme of Kishor Alo.

Dhaka's Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Aminul Haque took the case into cognisance and ordered the OC of Mohammadpur Police Station to submit an investigation report.

On January 16 this year, Abdul Alim, inspector of Mohammadpur Police Station, submitted the probe report to the court, saying that the charges brought against all the 10 accused were found to be true.

Dhaka's Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Kaisarul Islam issued arrest warrants against Matiur Rahman and nine others in the case that day.

Following the arrest warrants, Matiur Rahman got bail from the High Court while nine others got bails from different lower courts.

On September 20, Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Mohammad Jasim ordered to transfer the case to the Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court for trial.

Earlier on October 1, the Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court took cognisance of the charges against Matiur Rahman and nine others in the case.