Rabindranath graffiti case: Scuffle at bail hearing

A Dhaka court on Wednesday sent State Dialogue Forum member-secretary Al Nur Mohammad Ayas(27) and Marjia Khandaker Rimy(26) to jail after rejecting their bail petitions in a case over the defacement of a graffiti portrait of Rabindranath Tagore outside Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy in Segunbagicha.

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Md Riad Hasan passed the order after a hearing, said Dhaka Metropolitan Public Prosecutor Omar Faruqui.

Police produced the two before the court after completing their remand and sought to keep them in custody, saying interrogation had yielded important information about other suspects who remain at large. Investigators are verifying the information and may seek further remand for additional questioning, the police petition said.

Defence lawyers, including Monir Hossain Sumon, sought bail, while prosecutors opposed the petitions. The court rejected the bail pleas and ordered the accused to be sent to jail.

The hearing was briefly disrupted by a commotion between lawyers for the prosecution and defence. The magistrate left the courtroom for his chamber but returned about six minutes later and issued the order.

On October 11, the court granted two days of remand for Rimy and another accused, Sujon, and three days for Ayas and Sakibul Hasan. Sakibul and Sujon were sent to jail on October 13 after the end of their remand.

The case stems from an incident on October 10, when a group of young people led by Ayas attempted to erase a portrait of Tagore painted on a wall outside the Shilpakala Academy. Police intervened and detained four people amid an altercation.

A woman was seen applying black ink to the portrait. When a police officer tried to stop her, she said they were protesting what they described as “Indian aggression”. The group also chanted slogans under police intervention.

The portraits of Tagore, national poet Kazi Nazrul Islam, artist Zainul Abedin, filmmaker Satyajit Roy, educationist Ishwar Chandra Bidyasagar and five other prominent cultural figures had been painted on a wall beside the footpath after the Dhaka South City Corporation cleared encroachments in the area on October 5.

A Facebook page named “July Revolutionary Alliance” later questioned the inclusion of Roy and Bidyasagar, describing them as cultural figures from West Bengal. On October 11, a group led by Ayas went to remove the portraits. 

- MAL/MaT