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A Dhaka court has accepted a murder case against ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina and six others in connection with the death of a shop owner in Dhaka’s Mohammadpur during the quota reform movement protests.
Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Rajesh Chowdhury passed the order on Tuesday, accepting the complaint by plaintiff SM Amir Hamza as direct testimony.
Hamza is a ‘well-wisher’ of the victim, grocery shop owner Abu Said, who was shot dead in the violence surrounding the protests.
Arrest warrants will be issued against the accused as the court has taken cognisance of the case under Section 302 of the Penal Code.
In addition to Hasina, the case also accuses Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader, former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, former inspector general of police Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun, former DMP commissioner Habibur Rahman, additional police commissioner Md Harunor Rashid, and Joint Commissioner Biplab Kumar Sarkar.
The plaintiff also applied to add unnamed senior police officers and government officials as defendants to the case.
A movement of students and job seekers demanding reforms to the quota system for government jobs turned into a mass movement to bring down the Awami League government in August. Over the course of three weeks, around 300 people were killed in violence across Bangladesh.
On Aug 5, in the face of a mass march on Dhaka by the protesters, Hasina resigned her premiership and fled to India.
This is the first case filed against her over the violence.
The plaintiff’s statement says that Abu Said was killed when police opened indiscriminate fire on students and common people around 4pm on Jul 19 during the quota reform protests.
Hamza said that though Said is not a close friend, he volunteered to file the case as a citizen of Bangladesh.
Said’s family lives in Panchagarh’s Boda Upazila. Hamza says they are not in any state to file a case.