Cases under DSA: Khadija to be freed from jail after 14 months

Jagannath University student Khadijatul Kubra, who had been imprisoned under two DSA cases for over a year, is finally free to walk out of jail after a Supreme Court bench cleared the path yesterday.

During the hearing of her bail petition, filed by her lawyers BM Elias Kachi and Jyotirmoy Barua, Chief Justice Obaidul Hassan, who led the bench, asked, "For how long has she been in jail?"

"One year and three months, your honour," responded her lawyers.

This visibly astonished the chief justice. The six-member bench of the Appellate Division then dismissed two petitions filed by the state challenging her bail.

Other five members of the bench are: Justice Burhanuddin, Justice M Enayetur Rahim, Justice Md Ashfaqul Islam, Justice Md Abu Zafor Siddique and Justice Jahangir Hossain Selim.

On February 16 this year, the High Court had granted permanent bail to Khadija but the state then filed two petitions with the SC challenging the HC order.

Following the petitions, an SC chamber judge stayed the HC order.

Khadija then submitted two petitions before the Appellate Division, praying that the chamber judge's stay order be vacated, said her lawyer BM Elias Kachi.

The SC chamber judge then sent all the four petitions to its full bench for a hearing.

On July 10, 2023, the bench, led by the former chief justice Hasan Foez Siddique, adjourned and stood over all four petitions for four months.

This automatically stayed the bail order that Khadija had obtained from the HC.

She has been denied bail as many as six times, three of which were by a lower court, said her family.

A student of political science at Jagannath University, Khadija was arrested on August 27 last year after police pressed charges against her in the two cases, filed by Kalabagan and New Market police themselves on October 11 and October 19, 2020.

The student was sued at the age of 17 for hosting a Facebook webinar, where a guest speaker, Delwar Hossain, a retired army officer, made contentious remarks.

Delwar, who is abroad at the moment, was also accused in these cases.

On July 10, the judges had said, "Why would you not take responsibility for what is being said by the guest of the talk show?"

This correspondent had verified her age from her birth certificate.

Although Khadija was sued as a minor, she had to undergo a full adult trial and incarceration.

She also had to spend a week in solitary confinement due to what jail authorities termed "misbehaviour".

According to them, she refused to cooperate with doctors when she was taken to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Hospital for a health checkup, and that is why she was placed in solitary confinement.

Her sister on the other hand had said that she was fasting and had not eaten or been hydrated since dawn that day, for which she was unable to give medical samples.