Du Question Leak: Court orders arrest of 78

A Dhaka court yesterday issued arrest warrants for 78 of the 125 accused in a case filed over their alleged involvement in question paper leak of Dhaka University’s “Gha” unit admission test in 2017.

On Sunday, Senior Assistant Superintendent of Police of CID Sumon Kumar Das, also investigation officer of the case, pressed charges against the 125 accused, including 87 DU students, in the case.

Metropolitan Magistrate Md Sarafuzzaman Ansary passed the order after the IO showed them “fugitives” and appealed to the court to issue arrest warrants for them.

Forty-seven of the accused are now on bail.

Earlier in the day, the court accepted the charges against the accused and issued arrest warrants for 78 of them.

The court directed the officer-in-charge of Shahbagh Police Station to submit by July 30 the report on execution of arrest warrants issued against the fugitives.

It also ordered the authorities to transfer the case against 39 of the 125 accused lodged under the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Act to the Dhaka Cyber Tribunal for its trial.

One of the accused is a juvenile and a separate charge sheet was submitted against him under the Juvenile Act.

The IO pressed charges against the 125 accused under the Public Examinations Act while against 39 of the accused under the ICT Act.

The CID had arrested 47 of the 125 suspects, including the alleged mastermind, Alip Kumar Biswas, a suspended assistant director of Bangladesh Krira Shikkha Protisthan (BKSP), in different times and they are now on bail.

Forty-six of them have already given statements before a magistrate, confessing to their offences.

In its very first raid at two DU dormitories, the CID arrested two BCL leaders -- Mohiuddin Rana, an assistant secretary of the BCL central committee, and Abdullah Al Mamun -- theatre and debate affairs secretary of the BCL’s Amar Ekushey Hall unit -- only hours before the university’s “Gha” unit admission test on October 20, 2017.

Police tracked down the gang members following a series of arrests since October 2017 when investigators raided two DU dormitories hours before the “Gha” unit admission test.