A Dhaka court on Sunday sent North South University student Apurba Pal to jail in a case filed over allegations of hurting religious sentiments, hours after he was beaten by a mob outside his house in the capital’s Bashundhara area.
Dhaka metropolitan magistrate Saifuzzaman issued the order after the investigating officer of the case, sub-inspector Md Chand Ali, produced the accused before the court and sought an order to keep him in jail.
On Saturday night several videos circulated on Facebook showed Apurba ‘throwing a copy of the Quran to the floor and trampling it’.
The videos sparked outrage online, with many users demanding his immediate arrest. At about 1:00am, an angry crowd began gathering outside Apurba’s house at Basundhara.
When police attempted to take him into their custody, the mob turned violent and assaulted Apurba. Later, additional police personnel were called in, and police managed to recover him from the mob at about 2:45am.
He was later taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital for treatment.
Vatara police station officer-in-charge Rakibul Hasan said that the case was filed under section 295A which stipulates up to two years’ imprisonment, a fine, or both for acts deliberately intended to outrage religious feelings.
‘We found evidence of showing disrespect to the Quran in several videos on his Facebook profile,’ Rakibul said.
Replying to a query, home adviser retired lieutenant general Md Jahangir Alam at a press briefing on Sunday said that an investigation was going on in this connection.
Hours after his arrest, North South University announced that it had permanently expelled Apurba Pal ‘for desecrating the Quran’.
The decision was made at an emergency meeting of the university’s disciplinary committee on Sunday afternoon, according to a press release signed by Syed Mansur Hashim, director of the NSU public relations department.
The university said that the incident took place on campus on Saturday, when witnesses reportedly saw Apurba desecrating the Quran.
The university administration would file a separate case over the incident, the press release said.
Apurba, a student of the media, communication and journalism department at the university, had previously been temporarily expelled for violation of discipline.
Hefazat-e-Islam Bangladesh in a statement on Sunday demanded exemplary punishment for Apurba.
