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Police have petitioned to have North South University (NSU) student Apurbo Pal detained in jail over allegations of “insulting the Quran”.
Sub-Inspector Chand Mia of Vatara Police Station, the investigating officer in the case, filed the petition in court on Sunday, reports bdnews24.com.
The matter will be heard by the court of Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Saifuzzaman, according to Sub-Inspector Zakir Hossain of the prosecution.
The petition states: “Evidence has been found that the accused was involved in insulting the Quran. During the interrogation, Apurbo Pal admitted that he had brought the Quran Sharif, the holy book of Islam, in front of everyone and stepped on it, thereby insulting the religious beliefs of Muslims.
“The investigation of the case is ongoing. For the sake of the investigation, it may be necessary to take him into police remand for interrogation at a later time. If released on bail, there is a possibility that the suspect will abscond forever.”
For this reason, the petition asked for Apurbo’s bail to be denied and for him to be kept in jail.
On Saturday night, a video began spreading on Facebook with different posts claiming that Apurbo had insulted the Quran. His Facebook post was shared, and demands for his arrest grew louder. A group of agitated people then began to gather outside Apurbo's house around 1 am on Sunday.
Vatara police attempted to go to the house and take him into custody when the incident was reported. Police initially requested the support of those who had gathered in the area to take Apurbo into custody. They agreed.
When police detained Apurbo and attempted to take him to the police station, the agitated crowd began beating him. When the police tried to calm the mob, they grew angry at the law enforcers. The situation went out of control, and additional police personnel were called to the scene.
Around 2:30 am, Vatara Sub-Inspector Kamruzzaman said, “We tried to take him into custody. But it was not possible due to the size of the crowd and their obstructions. Afterwards, we increased the size of the force and attempted to bring him out.”
Police were eventually able to take Apurbo into custody around 2:45am as people attempted to beat him.
OC Rakibul said, "We have found evidence in several videos on his Facebook ID of him disrespecting the Quran after the incident was reported. But when we went to detain him, we faced an agitated mob.”
Apurbo lived with his family at the house, and the family is now safe, he said.
According to Asif Bin Ali, a lecturer at NSU’s Department of Mass Communication and Journalism, Apurbo was a student of the department but had been expelled.