Nasir Uddin Sathi, chairman of private television channel MyTV, has been shown arrested in a murder case over the killing of Class X student Mahfuzur Rahman during the July 2024 mass uprising in Dhaka’s Mirpur-10 area.

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Ariful Islam passed the order on Thursday after hearing an application from the investigation officer, Rafiqul Islam, a sub-inspector of the court’s prosecution department, confirmed.

On 13 October, Sub-Inspector Abdul Wahid of Mirpur Model Police Station, the investigation officer in the case, applied to show Sathi arrested in the case. Sathi was produced before the court today, where the prosecution and defence argued over the application.

Prosecutor Md Kamruzzaman Swapan told the court that Sathi is a member of the central committee of the Awami League, which has been banned, and alleged that he attempted to suppress or divert coverage of the July protests rather than broadcast objective reports through MyTV. The investigation had found his involvement in the incident, the prosecutor said.

Defence counsel Anwar Zahid Bhuiyan, president of the Dhaka Bar Association, opposed the application, arguing that Sathi had been in jail since August last year and was being implicated in another case after more than a year. He also claimed that Sathi held no position in the Awami League and was physically unwell.

After reviewing the arguments and documents, the court rejected the defence plea and ordered that Sathi be shown arrested in the case and sent back to jail.

According to the case documents, Mahfuzur joined a protest procession near Mirpur-10 roundabout on 19 July 2024 during the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement. He was shot dead in the area.

Seeking justice for his son, Mahfuzur’s father filed a murder case naming 50 people, including ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina, as accused.