Court Correspondent :
Police yesterday (Sunday) pressed charges against 24 persons including Ayesha Siddika Minni in the case filed for killing Rifat Sharif in broad daylight in Barguna town on June 26.
Inspector Humayun Kabir, the Investigation Officer of the case, submitted the charge-sheet to the court of Barguna’s Senior Judicial Magistrate Mohammad Sirajul Islam Gazi, said an official of Barguna Sadar Police Station.
Two charge-sheets- one for juvenile and another for adult were submitted in the case, police officials confirmed the newsmen. Rifat’s wife Minni’s name is in the seventh position of the charge-sheet submitted against the adults.
The name of the prime accused Sabbir Hossain Nayan alias Nayan Bond has been excluded from the charges as he was killed in a “gunfight” on July 2, six days after the murder of Rifat, according to a press release of the Superintendent of Police of Barguna. Rifat Farazi, a close accomplice of Nayan Bond, Ishan Farazi, Musa, Arian Srabon, Ratul Shikder, Symoon, Chandon, Mohiminul, Rifat Howlader, Tiktok Ridoy, Ryhan, Sagor, Rabbi Akon and Tanvir Hossain are among the accused named in charge-sheet. However, the names of the other accused persons could not be gathered till writing this report. Rifat Sharif, 25, an internet service provider in the locality, was hacked to death in broad daylight in front of a college in Barguna town on June 26. In the CCTV footage of the incident, Minni was seen screaming and trying to save her husband from the attackers. Rifat’s father filed the murder case with Barguna Sadar Police Station against 12 persons on the day of the incident. The prime accused in the case, Nayan Bond, was killed in a “gunfight” with police on July 2.
Police arrested Minni after a daylong interrogation on July 16. The concerned local court placed her on a five-day remand the following day. Three days later, a Barguna court recorded her confessional statement. However, later she appealed to the court to retract the statement.
On August 29, the High Court Division of the Supreme Court granted Minni bail in the case, on conditions that she will not talk to the media and remain in her father’s custody. If Minni breaches the conditions, her bail will be cancelled, the court said while delivering the verdict on her bail petition.
