Shawdesh Desk:

Police arrested a Jahangirnagar University student, who directly took part in the killing of Bangladesh Chhatra League former leader Shamim Molla, in Rajendranagar area in Gazipur on early Sunday.

The arrested, Mahmudul Haque Rayhan, 22, is a third-year student of the university’s English department.

‘Mahmudul will be produced to the court today,’ officer in-charge of Ashulia Police Station Abu Bakor Siddiqui said, adding that police would seek a seven-day remand from the court aiming to interrogate the arrested over the death.

The officer also said that the other seven accused were on the run.

Earlier on Friday, JU administration suspended a total of eight students of the university and lodged a lawsuit against them over beating former organising secretary of the university unit BCL Shamim Molla on the campus on September 18.

Apart from the listed accused, police arrested a BCL leader, Habibur Rahman Habib, in Dhamrai area in Dhaka on early Friday to interrogate him over the death.

Meanwhile, police reformed the charge-sheet over the death following the direction of the university administration as the proctorial body quoted the name of an innocent student on the charge sheet ‘mistakenly’.

They also re-sorted between no 1 and no 8 accused of the charge sheet following the direction.

JU administration, in a press release, said, ‘The previous suspension order was scrapped in a meeting of the university administration on Saturday as an innocent student was named in the list mistakenly.’

‘The administration replaced previously quoted Jubayer Ahmed with second year pharmacy department student Saiful Islam Bhuiyan following an investigation to identify the students involved in beating Shamim to death,’ the release said.

Meanwhile, JU unit of Student Movement Against Discrimination, in a statement on Sunday, demanded a fair investigation into the death of Shamim in ‘police custody’.

Quoting JU proctor AKM Rashidul Alam, they said, ‘Shamim did not die on the spot. He got on the police van by himself and died in police custody.’

They also demanded reformation of the investigation committee formed over the death as at least two members—Swadhin Sen and Aniccha Parvin—among five of the committee were ‘not neutral’.

‘The two teachers wrote the JU vice-chancellor after the death demanding curbing so-called supremacy of student movement coordinators on the campus. They cannot investigate the incident from a fair angle after the stance,’ the statement read.