Online Desk :   A court in Dhaka has sent former vice-president of Dhaka University Central Students’ Union (DUCSU) Nurul Haque Nur to jail after his five days of remand in a case filed over vandalizing and setting fire to Setu Bhaban at Banani in the capital on July 18. Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Shakil Ahammed ordered police to send Nur to jail. Earlier, the DB police inspector Abu Sayeed Mia produced him before the court on the end of his five-day remand in the case and pleaded to the court to keep him behind the bars till the end of probe.

On July 21, another court placed Nur, also member-secretary of Gana Adhikar Parishad, on a five-day remand. It was stated in the plea that VP Nur had contacted with Quota Reform Movement’s coordinators Sarjis Alam, Hasnat Abdullah and Asif Mahmud. He wrote down their 8-point programmes. Later, important information was found about his involvement in the subsequent events centering the movement. So, it is necessary to keep him in jail until the end of the investigation into the case.

During the hearing, Noor was produced before the court, but he could not stand firmly on the dock. At that time, his counsels pleaded to the court to grant him bail. They alleged that serious and brutal tortures were inflicted on Nur in remand. The counsels pleaded to the court for his bail taking his vulnerable physical condition into account. Instead of granting him bail, the judge ordered police to send him to jail following the hearing. Noor’s wife Maria Akter Luna and father Idris Howlader were present at the court. They called to stop torture on Nur.

Some 250 to 300 unidentified people on July 18 stormed into the premises of Setu Bhaban, vandalized many vehicles, and motorbikes, ransacked different sheds and rooms, and later set those on fire when the officials and employees were working inside the building at Banani in the capital. Then they attacked and beat many employees with local made arms, sticks and brickbats and chanted anti-government slogans. At that time, they vandalised and set fire to 32 jeeps, 9 pickups and minibuses causing a loss amounting to some Tk 300 crore.