Police have filed an application seeking to keep Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury, former information advisor to ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina and chairman of private television channel DBC, in jail in a case over the murder of madrasa student Arif in Dhaka’s Jatrabari during the July Uprising.
 
The application was filed by the case's investigating officer, Sub-Inspector Mohammad Amir Hossain of Jatrabari Police Station.
 
“There is no remand application against Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury for now. An application has been filed seeking to keep him in jail,” he said.
 
The hearing on the application will be held at a Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate's Court, said Sub-Inspector Mohin Uddin of the prosecution division.
 
Police picked up Iqbal Sobhan from the office of private television channel DBC News in the Mohakhali area around noon on Wednesday. The channel's chief crime reporter, Rajib Ghosh, was also taken into custody at the time.
 
Iqbal Sobhan is also the editor and publisher of the Daily Observer.
 
Following his arrest, Dhaka Metropolitan Police's Public Relations Division Deputy Commissioner Akhtar Hossain said: “An undesirable situation arose at DBC over the broadcast of a news report. Journalist Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury and Rajib Ghosh were taken into DB custody from there.”
 
He did not clarify what the undesirable situation was.
 
Later that night, police showed Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury arrested in the case over the murder of madrasa student Arif.
 
However, DMP's Detective Branch chief Shafiqul Islam said that Rajib, a special correspondent of DBC News who was also detained by detectives, would be released after signing a bond.
 
According to the case statement, Arif, a first-year Alim student at Lord Hardinge Fazil Madrasa, was shot in the eye during an exchange of fire between police and Awami League leaders and activists on Boubazar Road in the Kutubkhali area of Jatrabari on the afternoon of Jul 19, 2024, during the July Uprising.
 
He was taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital for treatment, where doctors declared him dead.
 
Following the incident, Arif's father, Yusuf, filed a case with Jatrabari Police Station on Aug 25, 2024, accusing Sheikh Hasina and 232 others.
 
Iqbal is listed as accused No. 53 in the case.