A Dhaka court today sent former industries minister and Awami League advisory council member Amir Hossain Amu to jail, rejecting his bail plea in a case filed over the death of a trader, Abdul Wadud, in Dhaka's New Market area during the quota reform protests on July 19.

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Md Sharifur Rahman passed the order after Investigation Officer Md Jahangir Arip, an inspector of Detective Branch of Police, produced him before the court on completion of his six-day remand, a sub-inspector working in the court told The Daily Star.

The IO also appealed to the court to confine the AL leader in jail until the investigation is completed.

The defence submitted an application seeking bail on the grounds that their client is now 85 years old. Moreover, they said their client could not move easily due to different ailments, including old-age complications.

After hearing from both sides, the magistrate turned down the defence pleas and ordered Amu to be sent to Dhaka Central Jail in Keraniganj.

The Detective Branch of police arrested Amu on November 6 from a house in Dhaka's West Dhanmondi area.

Amu, also the coordinator of the AL-led 14-party alliance, was elected member of parliament six times from Jhalakathi-2 constituency.

Like many other AL leaders, Amu had been in hiding since the fall of the Sheikh Hasina-led government on August 5.

The next day, a joint team of army and police recovered Tk 5 crore in local and foreign currencies from Amu's house in Jhalakathi after a mob set the house on fire.

The money was discovered when firefighters went there to extinguish the blaze. They informed the army and police, who then arrived at the scene and found several pieces of luggage stashed with money.

On August 17, the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit instructed all banks to freeze accounts of Amu and his daughter Sumaiya Hossain.

It also asked the banks to block all transactions through the accounts they maintain.