Locked up for no reason

Amatullah Bushra, a friend of slain Buet student Fardin Noor Parash, has been in jail for four weeks although the law enforcers found no evidence of her involvement in Fardin's murder.

Bushra was arrested from her home in the capital's Banasree area on November 10 as she was named in the case filed over the murder.

Her family members kept insisting that she was innocent and falsely named in the case documents.

"Police arrested my daughter in this sensational case without conducting a primary investigation. The investigators are now saying that they have not found her involvement in Fardin's killing," Bushra's father Monjurul Islam told The Daily Star yesterday.

He said Bushra, the eldest among four siblings, had started her higher studies at a private university. She, however, is now experiencing a great loss because of the case.

"Her dreams are now shattered for this case. I would have had no regrets if she was involved in the murder. But she is innocent. It is uncertain when she would come out of jail," said a frustrated father.

Monjurul said Fardin dropped Bushra in a rickshaw in the Rampura TV Centre area on November 4 night. Then she went straight to her hostel, alone, and did not go outside.

Fardin, a third-year student of the civil engineering department at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet), was found dead in the Shitalakhkhya river in Narayanganj on November 7, three days after he went missing.

His father Kazi Nooruddin Rana filed a murder against Bushra and some unidentified people with Rampura Police Station.

On the day of her arrest, Bushra was placed on a five-day remand for interrogation after she was produced before a Dhaka court with a seven-day remand prayer.

AKM Habibur Rahman Chunnu, a lawyer for Bushra, said he sought her bail on November 16 but the court rejected it.

"The court on that day said that it is a murder case which is now under investigation," the lawyer said.