Hassan on fresh remand

Dhaka, June 19 (bdnews24.com)?Detectives have got another day to question Hassan Syed, husband of tormented Dhaka University teacher Rumana Monzur.

Dhaka's chief metropolitan magistrate Shahriar Adnan on Sunday granted the Detective Branch (DB) the one-day remand.

Bahauddin Faruqi, a DB sub-inspector and the investigation officer, sought 10 days for questioning him in the attempt-to-murder case, filed by the father of the victim on June 6.

Hassan, 38, was produced before the court on completion of his two-day remand.

The investigator in the remand petition said it was necessary to further question him to check Rumana's Facebook and e-mail accounts. Hassan knew passwords to the accounts, he added.

Hassan's lawyer Monwar Islam Chowdhury appealed that he be grilled at the jail gate alleging that he was beaten during the remand.

Terming the torture on Rumana 'not a murder attempt', Monwar said there was no reason to remandi him again.

"She (Rumana) led her life in a western style. Her husband became sick due to her affair," he said.

Earlier, a Human Rights Foundation petition to list it as one of the plaintiffs in the case was granted. Lawyers Mahmuda Akter and Shammi Akter argued for the organisation.

Absconding since June 5, Hassan was arrested on June 15 after he allegedly tried to gouge her eyes out and chewed part of her nose off.

Assistant professor of international relations of Dhaka University, Rumana was taken to Chennai, India for better treatment on June 14, as doctors said the tissues of the victim's eyes had got badly ruptured in the attack.

After arrest, Hassan claimed she had an affair with an Iranian, whom Rumana met while studying in Canada.

He said, "I requested her to discontinue the relations with the Iranian guy and deleted his name from her Facebook friends' list on June 5 when she was in bathroom."

"Finding the Iranian guy's name deleted, she attacked me and we had a scuffle," Hassan added.

The incident has sent a shock wave across the country, with Dhaka University teachers and students, civil society members and people of all walks of life condemning it.

The University of British Columbia, where Rumana is completing a master's degree in political science at its Vancouver campus, has also condemned the brutal attack.

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