A Dhaka court on Thursday sent Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury, chairman of DBC News and former information adviser to then prime minister Sheikh Hasina, to jail in a murder case over the killing of madrasa student Md Arif in Jatrabari during the 2024 Anti-Discrimination Student Movement.
Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Sarah Farzana Haque passed the order after Sobhan was produced before the court.
Police did not seek remand for questioning him in the first phase of the investigation.
Sub-Inspector Mohammad Amir Hossain of Jatrabari Police Station, the investigation officer in the case, produced Sobhan before the court and sought his detention in jail for the sake of a proper investigation and judicial proceedings.
Following hearings from the prosecution and the defence, the court granted the petition and ordered his imprisonment.
Sobhan was taken into custody on Wednesday afternoon following tensions at the DBC News office in Dhaka's Mohakhali.
The incident reportedly stemmed from a dispute between former and current journalists over the broadcast of a news report.
After receiving information, police and members of the Detective Branch (DB) went to the office and took Sobhan and DBC News Chief Crime Reporter Rajib Ghosh into their custody.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Deputy Commissioner of Media and Public Relations Akhtar Hossain initially said the two had been taken to the DB office to prevent any untoward incident and ensure their security.
Later that night, Sobhan was shown arrested in the murder case filed with Jatrabari Police Station.
Meanwhile, DMP Detective Branch chief Shafiqul Islam confirmed that Rajib Ghosh had been released after signing a bond.
According to the case statement, police and activists of the then ruling party opened fire on a gathering of students and members of the public on Boubazar Road in Jatrabari's Kutubkhali area on July 19, 2024, during the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement.
During the firing, Md Arif, a first-year Alim student at Lord Hardinge Fazil Madrasa, sustained a gunshot wound to his eye. His fellow students took him to Dhaka Medical College Hospital, where doctors declared him dead.
Arif's father, Yusuf, filed the murder case with Jatrabari Police Station on August 25, 2024, naming 233 people and accusing several hundred unidentified individuals.
Former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, several political leaders and influential figures from the then government were among the accused. Sobhan was listed as accused No. 53 in the first information report (FIR).
Sobhan is also the editor and publisher of the English-language daily The Daily Observer. He previously served as a journalist and information adviser to former prime minister Sheikh Hasina.