A Dhaka metropolitan magistrate court on Monday sent actor Nusraat Faria Mazhar to jail in a case of attempted murder allegedly committed during the July uprising last year.
Emanul Haque, who said he sustained bullet injury during the uprising in July, filed the case with the city鈥檚 Bhatara police.
Dhaka metropolitan magistrate Nasrin Akter ordered sending the actor to jail as she was produced before the court by Bhatara police sub-inspector Billal Bhuiyan who requested the court to keep her behind bars, court officials said.
Her bail petition moved by the defence lawyer was rejected with the court setting May 22 for bail hearing, they said.
On Sunday afternoon, immigration officials arrested Nusraat Faria at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in city as she was about to leave for Thailand on a Biman Bangladesh Airlines flight.
Many, an interim government adviser, politicians and artistes among them, took to social media to condemn the arrest.聽
Expressing dissatisfaction over the actor鈥檚 arrest, cultural affairs adviser Mostofa Sarwar Farooki on Monday said that it was an 鈥榚mbarrassing incident鈥� for the authorities. He said that emphasis should be given to identify and聽prosecute the actual聽perpetrators of the July attacks.
鈥業 usually do not want to say anything outside my ministry鈥檚 jurisdiction. But I have an identity鈥擨 was a person of the industry and would return there in future,鈥� Farooki wrote in a Facebook post, referring to his identity as a filmmaker.
Criticising the interim government over Nusraat Faria鈥檚 arrest, National Citizen Party chief organiser for south Hasnat Abdullah in a Facebook post, also on Monday, said that the interim government was imitating the ousted Sheikh Hasina regime by applying the tactics of diverting people鈥檚 attention.聽
Hasnat asked the government about the whereabouts of 626 people, apparently referring to an earlier statement by the Inter-Services Public Relations that said that 626 individuals of different professions, including politicians and law enforcement personnel, took shelter at cantonments across the country following the political changeover on August 5 last year.聽
鈥榊ou are arresting Nusraat Faria in a murder case after letting those 626 people to leave the country to show that you are delivering justice. This is not justice but a bid to divert attention, just the way Hasina did,鈥� he said.
The NCP in a statement on Monday said that the arrest of Nusraat Faria and sending her to jail would turn the very trial process of the July uprising into a farce.聽
Home affairs adviser retired Lieutenant General Jahangir Alam Chowdhury, however, claimed that Nusraat Faria was arrested following legal procedures as she was accused in a case.
He said that the investigation of the case was going on.聽
On May 3, a case was filed with the Bhatara police against 283 people, including ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina and 17 artistes, on charges of attempt to murder during the July uprising.
According to the case statements, Nusraat Faria was also a financer of Awami League during the mas uprising.
Plaintiff Emanul Haque, 35, alleged that he blacked out after sustaining bullet injury on his right leg in the Paka Rasta area under the Bhatara police on July 19, 2024, during the student movement against discrimination.
