Quota reform leader Luma granted bail

A Dhaka court yesterday granted bail to quota reform leader Lutfun Nahar Luma in a case filed over “spreading rumours on social media and instigating violence” during the recent road safety movement.

Metropolitan Magistrate Subrata Ghosh Shuvo passed the order after her lawyer had submitted a petition seeking bail.

Luma, a joint convener of quota reform movement's central committee and also a student of Eden College, was picked up from her grandfather's house in Belkuchi upazila of Sirajganj on August 15.

She was shown arrested in a case filed with Ramna police on August 5 under the controversial section 57 of the ICT Act.

She was placed on three-day remand for quizzing.

The Cyber Crime Unit of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) also seized two mobile phones from her possession.

Luma was sent to jail on August 20 after Inspector Rafikul Islam of the Cyber Crime Unit produced her before a Dhaka court on completion of her remand.

Actress Quazi Nawshaba Ahmed, who was held over “spreading rumours” on the social media, walked out of jail on bail on August 21.

However, eminent photographer Shahidul Alam, who has recently been denied bail in a similar case, is behind bars.

More than 100 people, mostly students of private universities and colleges, were rounded up in 53 cases in the capital alone over vandalism and attacks on law enforcers and spreading rumours on social media since the students' protest for road safety began on July 29 following deaths of two students in a city road crash, according to DMP.

Just before Eid, 83 students were given bail in two days on August 19-20.

Earlier in February, students of different public universities and jobseekers, under the banner of “Bangladesh Sadharan Chhatra Adhikar Sangrakkhan Parishad”, initiated the quota reform movement demanding a reform to the quota system in government jobs.

Eight leaders of the movement, who were arrested in July over vandalism, assaulting and preventing police from discharging their duties during the movement in April, among others, have recently got bail.

Ever since the quota reformists started fresh programmes to press home their five-point demand on June 30, they have either been attacked by alleged Chhatra League men or got arrested.

In a latest move, the quota reformists on August 12 threatened the government with tougher agitations from August 31 if a gazette regarding quota reforms was not published.