Deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and six others have been sued on a charge of murder for the killing of Abu Sayed, a grocer in Dhaka's Mohammadpur area, in shooting during the student-mass uprising.
The other accused are former Road Transport and Bridges Minister and Awami League Secretary Obaidul Quader, former Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, ex-Inspector General of Police (IGP) Abdullah Al Mamun, and former Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Commissioner Habibur Rahman, Additional Commissioner of DMP Harun Or Rashid, and Joint Commissioner Biplob Kumar.
Unnamed Awami League leaders and police officials have also been accused in what comes as the first case against the top brass of the fallen government and their associates.
S M Amir Hamza Shatil, the plaintiff of the case, filed the case Tuesday with the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court (CMM) of Dhaka.
After preliminary hearing on the charge, Metropolitan Magistrate Rajesh Chowdhury asked the Mohammadpur Police Station in the city to register the case statement as an FIR or first-information report.
Lawyer Mamun Miah, who appeared in the court hearing on behalf of the petitioner, confirmed the institution of the case.
Earlier in the day, the lawyer of the plaintiff prayed to the court for admitting the case. Following the prayer the judge recorded the statement of the plaintiff, Amir Hamza, and then passed the order.
According to the case statement, students and common people brought out a procession at 4.00 pm on July 19 in 2024 in Bosila area under Mohammadpur Police Station in support of quota-reform movement. Police opened fire "indiscriminately to suppress that procession". Abu Sayed, 45, was murdered in the firing.
"Local people then sent his body to his ancestral home in Boda upazial under Panchagarh district. No case was filed regarding the murder of Abu Sayed. As his family is very poor and unable to seek refuge of law, the plaintiff as a conscious citizen of the country filed the case," the case statement reads.
"Former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and other top officials of her government ordered suppressing the movement with a strong hand, and complying with their command, unknown police members opened fire on the protesters and killed Abu Sayed," it is further stated in the case.
Hundreds of protesters were killed during the month-long quota-reform movement that climaxed into an anti-discrimination movement. Finally, in the face of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement, the Sheikh Hasina government stood down on August 5, and she fled the country.
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