The High Court Wednes-day refused to grant anticipatory bail to Bashundhara Group's managing director Sayem Sobhan Anvir in the case filed against him and some other people for their alleged involvement in the rape and murder of Mosarat Jahan Munia, a college student.
The bench of justices Mustafa Zaman Islam and KM Zahid Sarwar dropped Anvir's name from the bail petition as there was specific allegations against him.
However, the High Court granted anticipatory bail to Anvir's wife Sabrina Sayem for six weeks in the same case. Sabrina has been asked to surrender to the trial court concerned on expiry of her HC bail.
The bench in its order, said, "The court will not intervene in the case of the first petitioner (Anvir) for the time being as there is specific allegation against him and 'marks of injury' were confirmed in Munia's autopsy report."
"That is why we (High Court) are deleting his name from the petition," it added.
Lawyers Yusuf Hossain Humayun and Hassan Imam appeared in the hearing on behalf of the Bashundhara Group managing director (MD) and his wife, while assistant attorney general Mizanur Rahman Bhuiyan represented the state.
Sayem Sobhan Anvir and his wife Sabrina Sayem filed the bail plea with the High Court last week seeking anticipatory bail in the case filed against them on charge of killing after raping Munia. Gulshan police on April 26 recovered the body of the victim hanging from a ceiling fan in a rented flat at the city's Gulshan.
On September 6, Munia's sister Nusrat Jahan filed a complaint with the Dhaka Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal-8 against Bashundhara Group managing director Anvir, his wife Sabrina and six others.
The six other accused are -- Bashundhara Group chairman Ahmed Akbar Sobhan alias Shah Alam and his wife Afroza Begum, model Faria Mahbub Piyasha, Saifa Rahman Mim, the Gulshan flat's landlord Ibrahim Ahmed Ripon and his wife Sharmin.
Following hearing, judge of the tribunal Afroza Parveen directed the officer-in-charge of Gulshan Police Station to treat the complaint as first information report and send the case to the chief of Police Bureau of Investigation for taking step to probe the complaint.
Nusrat in the case statement named Sayem as the prime accused of raping and murdering the victim. She accused the other seven people of intimidating Munia and assisting Sayem to commit the crime of 'rape and murder' of the college student.
Nusrat also alleged that Sayem took Munia to a house in the city's Banani in June 2019 and raped her there for 7-8 months.
The family of Sayem later brought Munia to their house with the help of Piyasha and asked the college student to leave Dhaka, the complainant said.
In 2020, Sayem sent Munia to her home in Cumilla with the promise of marriage and on March 01, 2021, he brought her to Dhaka and rented a flat for her at Gulshan at Tk 1,30,000 per month with the promise of marriage, according to the case statement.
Citing a medical report, the complainant also said that Munia later became pregnant.
Earlier on April 26, Nusrat filed another case against Bashundhara MD Sayem on charges of abetting the death by 'suicide' of the college student.
Later, the police submitted final report with recommendation for clearing Sayem and others of the charges, and on Aug 18 the court relieved the Bashundhara MD from the charges.
Nusrat later filed a fresh complaint against Sayem and the seven people with the Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal.
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