Staff Reporter :
The High Court on Sunday ordered the law enforcers not to arrest or harass Prothom Alo Editor and Publisher Matiur Rahman and five others until the hearing of the bail petitions in a case filed over the death of Naimul Abrar Rahat, a student of Dhaka Residential Model College.
The High Court bench of Justice Obaidul Hassan and Justice AKM Zahirul Huq passed the order after Matiur Rahman and five others appeared before the court seeking bail in the case.
The court also fixed today (Monday) for hearing the bail petitions. The five other accused are Anisul Hoque, Deputy Editor of Prothom Alo, Kabir Bakul, Head of the Event and Activation of Kishor Alo, Mahitul Alam Pavel, Senior Assistant Editor of Kishor Alo, and Shuvashish Pramanik Shuvo and Shah Paran Tushar, Assistants at Event and Activation of Kishor Alo.
Barrister M Amir-ul Islam moved the bail petitions for the six.
On January 16, a Dhaka court issued arrest warrants against Prothom Alo Editor and Publisher Matiur Rahman and nine others in the case. The court fixed February 24 for the next hearing in the case.
Abrar, a ninth-grader, was electrocuted during the anniversary programme of Prothom Alo’s youth magazine Kishor Alo on November 1 last year.
The charges brought against all the accused are under section 304(A) of Bangladesh Penal Code. The section deals with deaths caused by “rash or negligent act”.
On November 6, 2019, Naimul’s father Md Mojibur Rahman filed the case with a Dhaka court alleging that his son died due to the ‘negligence’ of the Kishor Alo authorities.
After hearing the complaint, Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (in-charge) Md Aminul Haque recorded the complainant’s statement and also ordered the Officer-in-Charge of Mohammadpur Police Station to submit an investigation report of the case after merging it with another case filed for unnatural death of the ninth-grader.
In the complaint, Mojibur Rahman said his son was electrocuted and fell unconscious when he was enjoying a show during the anniversary celebration of the youth magazine Kishor Alo at the Residential Model College around 3:30pm on November 1, 2019.
According to the case statement, Naimul’s father stated that his son was taken to Universal Hospital in Mohakhali forty-five minutes after the incident instead of taking him to a nearby hospital. Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital is just in the opposite side of the Dhaka Residential Model College.
Doctors of the Universal Hospital declared Naimul dead at 4:51 pm. If Naimul would be taken to the nearby hospital immediately, he might be alive, Mojibur Rahman mentioned in the complaint.
Such activities had led his son to death, the complainant added. Mojibur was informed about his son’s death by one of his classmates around 7:30 pm on November 1, he said.
