Journo Nadim Murder: Prime accused secures bail from HC

The High Court has granted six months' ad-interim bail to suspended UP chairman Mahmudul Alam Babu, the prime accused in the murder case of journalist Golam Rabbani Nadim.

Nadim, who was the Jamalpur district correspondent of Banglanews24.com and also the Bakshiganj upazila correspondent of Ekattor TV, died on June 15, a day after being attacked allegedly by supporters of Mahmudul.

On June 17, Nadim's wife, Monira Begum, filed the case with Bakshiganj Police Station against 22 named and 20-25 unnamed persons.

Mahmudul, the then chairman of Sadhurpara Union Parishad in Bakshiganj upazila, was named as the main accused.

The HC bench of Justices Md Jahangir Hossain and Md Showkat Ali Chowdhury granted bail to Mahmudul on Monday in response to his petition seeking bail.

Subsequently, the state filed a petition with the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court yesterday seeking a stay on the bail order.

The chamber judge of the Appellate Division may hold a hearing on the stay petition today, according to sources at the attorney general's office.

Deputy Attorney General Anwara Shahjahan, who opposed Mahmudul's bail petition before the HC bench on Monday, told The Daily Star yesterday that the prime accused was granted bail on the ground that three accused in the case made confessional statements before the magistrate concerned without naming Mahmudul as an offender in connection to the attack on Nadim.

However, on June 17, after Mahmudul's detention, Rab said he masterminded the murder.

"It was a planned murder. Nadim's reports on the chairman involving a woman and different anomalies angered the chairman, which led to the murder," said Rab Legal and Media Wing Director Commander Khandaker Al Moin.

The next day, he was placed on a 5-day remand, following which Mahmudul confessed to his involvement in the murder before Jamalpur Judicial Magistrate Hasib Ullah Pias under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the plaintiff's lawyer, Adv Yusuf Ali, told The Daily Star.