Petition asks for Rehana, Putul and Joy to be added to fruit trader murder case

A petition has urged a Dhaka court to add former prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s sister, son, and daughter as suspects in the murder case of a fruit trader allegedly killed by police gunfire in Dhaka’s Jatrabari during the Anti-discrimination Student Movement’s protests.

Md Sultan Sheikh, the father of victim Md Farid Sheikh, filed the case at the Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday, reports bdnews24.com. 

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Md Shakil Ahmed heard the plaintiff’s deposition and kept the decision pending, said his lawyer Jamal Hossain.

The case accuses 21 named suspects including Hasina and members of her family, as well as 250 others. The named suspects include Hasina’s nephew Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh, son Sajeeb Wazed Joy, daughter Saima Wazed Putul, and sister Sheikh Rehana.

The complaint says that Farid was on his way to his fruit store near the south side of the Hanif Flyover Toll Plaza in Jatrabari when he was shot and critically injured by police gunfire. People nearby then rushed him to Mugda Medical College Hospital where he died on Aug 6.

In his petition, the plaintiff said:

“Sajeeb Wazed Joy, Saima Wazed Putul, and Sheikh Rehana don’t have professions of their own. Their only job was to keep Sheikh Hasina in power as prime minister, and loot money from Bangladesh to smuggle to the United States and the United Kingdom. That is why they incited Sheikh Hasina to kill people indiscriminately with her pet armed forces.”

Since she resigned her premiership and fled Bangladesh, Hasina has been accused in 17 cases, most of them in Dhaka.