Staff Correspondent:

Former home ministry secretary Jahangir Alam has been sent to jail following the completion of a five-day remand in connection with a case filed over a killing during last year’s July uprising.

The case relates to the death of Russell Bokul in the capital’s Jatrabari area on 5 August last year.

After a hearing in the presence of the accused on Friday, Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate GM Farhan Ishtiaq ordered that Jahangir be sent to jail, according to court sources.

The investigating officer, Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) Inspector Md Shahinuzzaman, produced Jahangir in court after his remand period concluded.

Earlier, on 16 July, a Dhaka court had placed Jahangir on an eight-day remand, granting a five-day remand in the Russell Bokul murder case and a three-day remand in the Riton Uddin murder case.

During that hearing, Jahangir’s lawyer, Farzana Yasmin Bithi, had filed a bail petition and requested the court to dismiss the fresh remand pleas. She argued that her client, as a government employee, was bound to follow official orders and could not act outside of them.

She also noted that Jahangir, who has a heart stent, was physically unwell and had already been placed on remand several times before. The court, however, rejected her pleas.

While in the dock, Jahangir Alam sought permission from the judge to speak. He vehemently denied the allegations, stating, “There is a limit to falsehood. Allah will not tolerate this. If that limit is crossed, you will be accountable to Allah.”

He claimed that false allegations had been made against him and asserted, “I did not go to the office on 5 August. Yet, an incident from 27 July is being shown as if it occurred on 5 August.”

Jahangir was initially arrested by the Detective Branch of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police on 1 October last year, in connection with two cases. He was placed on remand multiple times before the latest five-day period.

According to case documents, Russell Bokul was participating in a protest near the Jatrabari Police Station on 5 August 2024, when he reportedly sustained fatal bullet injuries. He was later declared dead at a hospital.

Russell’s brother, Hasnat Bokul, filed the case at Jatrabari Police Station on 28 August 2024.