Staff Reporter :
Sayem Sobhan Anvir, the Managing Director of the Bashundhara Group, has filed a petition with the High Court seeking anticipatory bail in a case filed over the suicide of a college girl in the capital.
Lawyers filed the bail plea yesterday on behalf of Anvir, 42, who was sued over abetting Munia’s death by suicide.
The bench of Justice Mamnoon Rahman and Justice Khandaker Diliruzzaman is scheduled to hear the petition today.
Earlier on Tuesday, a Dhaka court imposed a travel ban on Anvir barring him from leaving the country after filing the case.
The college girl, Mosarat Jahan Munia, 21, was found hanging in a flat in the capital’s Gulshan area on Monday evening.
The victim had been living alone at the flat since March 1 this year, and security guards of the building told police that the accused used to visit her there.
The victim’s elder sister filed the case with the Gulshan police station under Section 306 of the Penal Code later at night (early hours on Tuesday).
The family of the deceased said that they have been suffering from insecurity since the case was filed.
Nusrat Jahan, the plaintiff in the case, told The New Nation that she was being threatened after filing the case against Bashundhara Group Managing Director Sayem Sobhan Anvir alleging “provocation for suicide”.
“I am very depressed from Tuesday night as I have been told many nonsense words over phone. We are in the face of threats and suffering from insecurity.”
Nusrat claimed that many things over my sister’s death have been proved. If my sister’s suicide is abetted, then the question who provoked her to commit the suicide?
“Now we are waiting for the justice,” she added. It seems hard for me to hope for the accused to get arrested, Nusrat said, seeking intervention from the government’s high-ups in this regard.
Quoting the primary information of the physicians who conducted her autopsy, police yesterday said that Munia committed suicide.
“After scrutinising the CCTV footages, movement of Sayem Sobhan Anvir, who is made accused of abetment of suicide in the case, was not found in the flat on the day before and the day of the incident,” Sudip Kumar Chakroborty, Deputy Commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police of Gulshan Division, told a group of journalists on Wednesday.
He also said that police recovered six handwritten diaries of Munia which were the most important evidences in the suicide incitement case.
Although news spread on social media that Anvir had left the country, police said that according to the information they had, he is in the country.
Asked what information the police have in this regard, Sudip Kumar Chakroborty said, “Immigration management system is completely digital in Bangladesh. Information on passengers’ identificaion and which passports they use preserve digitally with a database.
If a passenger goes out of the country or arrives from outside the country is digitally registered. According to the database of the immigration authorities, the accused did not leave Bangladesh. Still he is in the country,” he said.
Regarding arrest of Anvir, Sudip Kumar Chakraborty said, “The allegation in this case is incitement to suicide. The task we have to do for this is to properly define the subject of persuasion. Otherwise, it will not be possible to ensure proper investigation of the case. That is why we place so much emphasis on gathering, analyzing and proving sufficient evidence to substantiate the allegations of persuasion as well as on finding of a reasonable basis for the allegations.”
He said they would consider the arrest of the accused later.
“When adequate evidence comes to us, we must take appropriate action against the accused in accordance with the Penal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code,” he added.
According to the case statement, in 2019, Anvir took the victim to a rented flat in the city’s Banani and they started living together.
Last year, Anvir’s family came to know about his relation with the victim and his mother threatened the victim of dire consequences, asking her to leave Dhaka, the complainant said in the FIR.
The accused, Anvir, then sent the victim to Cumilla assuring her that he would marry her later, the FIR added.
According to the FIR, on March 1, the victim’s sister and brother-in-law rented the Gulshan flat using their national identity cards at the insistence of Anvir.
After the flat was rented, Anvir brought the victim to the flat in Gulshan from Cumilla, it added.
When asked, Mohammad Abu Tayeb, Bashundhara Group’s Media Adviser, told The New Nation, “Since a case has been filed in this regard, they will proceed legally.”
He added that they were considering the filing of the case and the whole incident as a ‘conspiracy’ against the Bashundhara Group.
Meanwhile, police interrogated Nazmul Karim Chowdhury Sharun, the son of Awami League lawmaker and parliament whip Shamsul Haque Chowdhury, in connection with the death of college student Mosarat Jahan Munia.
Munia called Sharun before her suicide. Earlier, some screenshots of the conversation between Sharun and Munia went viral on social media.
However, Sharun claimed that the screenshots of the conversation with Munia on Facebook after his death are false. He also demanded forensic examination of the conversations to verify the truth.
Munia’s brother Ashiqur Rahman Sabuj said, “I don’t believe she (Munia) can kill herself. She was an artist and also worked as a model.”
The victim’s brother-in-law told journalists on Tuesday that his sister-in-law was murdered.
