Dhaka: The death references and appeals of the accused in the murder case of BUET student Abrar Fahad have been placed on Sunday’s cause list of the High Court (HC). A bench comprising Justice AKM Asaduzzaman and Justice Syed Enayet Hossain set the date, noting the death reference titled ‘state versus Mehedi Hassan Rasel and others’ as ‘heard in part’.
According to Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha, the hearing on the death references and appeals of the accused concluded on February 24. However, the defense lawyers requested to present additional arguments. Representing the state, Attorney General Mohammad Asaduzzaman, along with Deputy Attorney General Mohammad Jasim Sorkar and others, stood in court. Senior lawyers SM Shahjahan, Azizur Rahman Dulu, Masud Hasan Chowdhury, and Mohammad Shishier Monir defended the accused.
The case list for the Sunday session was published on the Supreme Court’s website. Abrar Fahad, a second-year Electrical and Electronics Engineering student at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, was tragically beaten to death by activists of the now-banned Bangladesh Chhatra League at the university’s Sher-e-Bangla Hall on October 6, 2019. The incident followed a Facebook post by Fahad concerning water-sharing issues between Bangladesh and India. His body was discovered on the hall’s stairs.
The following day, Fahad’s father filed a murder case against 19 Chhatra League activists at the city’s Chawkbazar police station, sparking widespread outrage across the nation.