Nusrat Murder: HC fixes Oct 13 for hearing Moazzem’s bail plea

The High Court on Tuesday has fixed October 13 for hearing a bail plea, filed by suspended Sonagazi OC Moazzem Hossain in the case over filming Nusrat Jahan Rafi’s statement and circulating the footage on social media without her consent.

The HC bench, consisting Justice M Enatur Rahim and Justice Md Mostafijur Rahman, gave the order. 

Advocate Rana Kawser, lawyer of Moazzem, submitted the appeal to the HC on July 31, seeking bail in the case filed under the Digital Security Act. During Tuesday’s hearing, Advocate Md Ahsan Ullah and Advocate Rana Kawser appeared for Moazzem.

Supreme Court lawyer Syed Sayedul Haque Suman filed the case with the Dhaka Cyber Tribunal against Moazzem on April 15.

Moazzem was arrested in the capital on June 16, twenty days after he went into hiding. Later, he was sent to jail.

What happened to Nusrat

Nusrat, a student of Feni’s Sonagazi Islamia Senior Fazil Madrasa, was set on fire on April 6 this year for refusing to withdraw a case against her madrasa principal, Siraj Ud Doula, for sexually assaulting her in March. Siraj Ud Doula was later arrested and sent to jail.

The principal in jail was visited by his associates whom he instructed to intimidate Nusrat’s family into withdrawing the case and, if necessary, he ordered them to kill Nusrat, according to Banaj Kumar Majumder, chief of the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI).

Acting on his instructions, four associates of the principal took Nusrat, only a few minutes before the Alim exams on April 6, to the roof of the administrative building of the madrasa, saying that one of her friends was being assaulted there.

There, they asked her to withdraw the case against the principal and sign on a blank piece of paper to this effect. Upon refusal, she was gagged and bound before she was doused with kerosene and set ablaze, according to the PBI chief. She was then rescued and sent to Dhaka Medical College Hospital with burn injuries of over 80 percent of her body. After a five-day battle with death, the 19-year-old girl succumbed to her injuries at a hospital in the capital on April 10 this year.