Prime accused Jitu held, father on 5-day remand

The Rapid Action Battalion on Wednesday arrested the prime accused in Ashulia college teacher murder case, Ashraful Islam Juti, at village Nagarhawla in Sripur of Gazipur.

“We’ve arrested Jitu at Nagarhawla village. We will inform details at a press conference on Thursday,” RAB’s legal and media wing director Commander Khandaker Al Moin told reporters.

Meanwhile, a Dhaka court on Wednesday put Jitu’s father Uzzal Hossain on a five-day remand.

Dhaka Judicial Magistrate Sheikh Mujahidul Islam granted the remand after police produced Uzzal before the court on the day after arresting him at Kumarkhali of Kushtia on Wednesday, four days after the teacher was beaten to death in broad daylight in Savar.

The investigation officer of the case, Sub Inspector Emdadul Huq produced Uzzal before the court and sought a 10-day remand for interrogating Ujjal in custody.

The prime accused of the case is a 9th grader of Haji Yunus Ali School and College at Ashulia of Dhaka’s Savar.

Uzzal, also an accused in the case, was hiding with his family since the murder.

Although Uzzal was arrested his other family members managed to flee during a police drive.

Police said they recovered the cricket stump that was used in the killing.

According to Md Kamruzzaman, Officer In-charge (OC) of Ashulia police station, based on information Investigation Officer (IO) of the case Sub Inspector (SI) Emdad Hossain arrested Uzzal from Kushtia’s Kumarkhali.

Students and teachers of the college alleged that the prime accused killed Utpal, head of the disciplinary committee of the college, in a pre-planned way.

“Utpal sir had caught the student (prime accused) with a girl inside a classroom and informed the family of the girl about the matter, which had created anger in him. That’s the reason why the student beat up Utpal sir to death on the sports day,” said a student of the college.

According to the college authorities, no CCTV footage of the crime was found as the cameras recorded nothing at that moment due to power outage.

The college authorities suspect that the boy had disconnected the power supply before killing Utpal.

Utpal Sarker, 35, son of Ajit Sarker of Engeldani village under Sirajganj’s Ullapara, had been serving as a teacher of Haji Yunus Ali School and College for almost ten years.