5 former SUST students get bail

A Sylhet court today granted bail to five former students of Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST) who were detained from Dhaka on Monday for donating financial assistance to the demonstrators.

Metropolitan Magistrate Md Sumon Bhuiyan granted their bail after a hearing in the afternoon, reports our Sylhet correspondent quoting Khokon Chandra Sarker, assistant commissioner (prosecution) of Sylhet Metropolitan Police.

The former students -- Reza Noor Muin, Habibur Rahman Khan, AFM Nazmus Sakib Dip, AKM Maruf Hossain, and Faisal Ahmed -- were arrested by CID and later handed over to SMP yesterday.

Among them, AFM Nazmus Sakib Dip was admitted to Shamsuddin Ahmed Hospital after he was diagnosed with Covid-19, said BM Ashraf Ullah Taher, additional deputy commissioner (media) of SMP.

Later that night, Sujat Ahmed Layek, organising secretary of Bangladesh Tanti League's Sylhet district unit, filed a case with Jalalabad Police Station accusing the five and 150 unidentified persons.

According to the case statement, the arrestees and other protesting students violated the vice-chancellor's executive order of closing the university and gathered in front of his residence by confining him at his house.

It also stated that the named accused financed the demonstration with ill motives and also posted derogatory words against the vice-chancellor on Facebook.

While talking to The Daily Star, the plaintiff Sujat said, "Financing a movement is a serious offence and the financiers, and the demonstrators, are Jamaat-Shibir men. I filed the case as a concerned citizen."