SHERPUR — A court on Monday canceled the bail of Chandan Kumar Pal, senior vice-president of the Sherpur district Awami League and a former public prosecutor, and issued an arrest warrant against him in a Special Powers Act case.
Senior Judicial Magistrate Md. Hasan Bhuiyan issued the order on Oct. 20 after rejecting an application filed on Pal’s behalf without a hearing. The Awami League’s activities are currently banned.
Public Prosecutor Abdul Mannan represented the state, assisted by Special Public Prosecutor Ashrafunnahar Ruby and court police inspector Ziaur Rahman. Mannan confirmed the cancellation of bail and the arrest warrant.
Anti-Discrimination Student Movement activists and families of those killed and injured in last year’s unrest staged a sit-in at the court premises and the district commissioner’s office earlier in the day, pressing an eight-point demand that included the removal of the judge and the public prosecutor.
Among those present were Mahmudul Hasan Rakib, central organizer of Jatiya Jubo Shakti; NCP leader Rashedul Hasan Dewan; and former Anti-Discrimination Student Movement leaders Shahnoor Rahman Sayem and Morshed Jitu. The demonstrators ended their program after District Commissioner Tarafdar Mahmudur Rahman spoke with them.
Pal had recently received interim bail from the High Court in six cases involving deaths during the student movement, and on Sept. 28 the district sessions court granted him interim bail in another case. He was released from district jail the next day. Monday was the scheduled next hearing in that case.
News of his release stirred protests on social media and in local political circles, with speculation that he had left the country. After a series of news conferences and counter-conferences, Anti-Discrimination Student Movement members, July fighters and families of the dead blockaded the main gates of the court, police superintendent’s office and district commissioner’s office on the morning of Oct. 6.
Later that day, the state’s public prosecutor filed a special application seeking the seizure of Pal’s passport and a travel ban. District and Sessions Judge Mohammad Zahirul Kabir granted the request after a hearing, ordering the seizure of the passport and barring Pal from leaving the country.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report