Prof Anowara gets bail

A Dhaka court yesterday granted bail to Prof SM Anowara Begum, a freedom fighter and retired political science teacher at Jagannath University (JnU), in an attempted murder case.

The case was filed over an attack on protesters during the anti-discrimination student movement on July 19 last year. According to the case, she is 69 years old.

Tap here to add The Daily Star as a trusted source

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Md Minhajur Rahman passed the order after her lawyer submitted an application seeking bail.

In the order, the magistrate said Anowara is a freedom fighter and a retired professor. Moreover, the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) allow any woman, any ill or under-aged person to get bail in a case of non-bailable offence.

"She fought for our independence in 1971. She was not involved in the incident and has been falsely implicated. Bail should be granted on humanitarian grounds," said her lawyer Sohrab Hossain Sohel.

On May 29, she was sent to jail.

Prof Anowara was first apprehended by a group of students in front of the JnU campus on May 28. Then around 7:30pm, she was arrested after the students handed her over to police, said Md Saiful Islam, officer-in-charge of Sutrapur Police Station.

She has been charged with the attempted murder of Sujon Molla, former general secretary of the university unit of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, who was shot in the eye while protesting near Star Hotel on July 19 last year.

On February 16 this year, Molla filed a case with a Dhaka court against 192 individuals, including several former government officials, JnU teachers, administrative personnel, and 94 Chhatra League activists.