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Police have sought to keep Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury, former information adviser to ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina and chairman of private television channel DBC News, in jail in a murder case over the killing of madrasa student Arif in Dhaka’s Jatrabari during the July 2024 uprising.
The case’s investigation officer, Sub-Inspector Mohammad Amir Hossain of Jatrabari Police Station, filed the application seeking his detention in jail.
“There is no remand application against Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury for now. We have sought to keep him in jail,” the investigation officer said.
SI Mohin Uddin of the prosecution department said a hearing on the application would be held at the Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Court.
Police detained Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury from the DBC News office in Mohakhali on Wednesday afternoon. They also took the television channel’s chief crime reporter, Rajib Ghosh, into custody.
Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury is also the editor and publisher of The Daily Observer.
Following his detention, Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Deputy Commissioner (Public Relations) Akhtar Hossain said an “unwanted situation” had developed at DBC over the broadcast of a news report, prompting police to take Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury and Rajib Ghosh into DB custody.
He did not elaborate on the situation.
Later that night, police showed Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury arrested in the murder case of madrasa student Arif.
Meanwhile, DMP Detective Branch chief Shafiqul Islam said Rajib Ghosh, who was also detained by detectives, would be released after signing a bond.
According to the case statement, Arif, a first-year Alim student at Lord Hardinge Fazil Madrasa, was shot in the eye during an exchange of fire between police and Awami League activists on Boubazar Road in the Kutubkhali area of Jatrabari on the afternoon of July 19, 2024, during the July uprising.
He was taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital for treatment, where doctors declared him dead.
Arif’s father, Yusuf, filed the case with Jatrabari Police Station on August 25, 2024, accusing Sheikh Hasina and 232 others. Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury is named as the 53rd accused in the case.
