Supreme Court upholds JnU student Khadija’s bail

The Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday upheld a High Court order that granted bail to Jagannath University (JnU) student Khadijatul Kubra in two separate cases filed under the abolished Digital Security Act (DSA).

A six-member bench of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Obaidul Hassan passed the order.

The court also dismissed two separate petitions filed by the state challenging the HC’s bail order.

Khadijatul's lawyer BM Elias Kachi said that there is no legal bar for Khadijatul to get released from jail following the order. 

In October 2020, police filed two cases against Khadija and retired Maj Delowar Hossain at the Kalabagan and New Market police stations for spreading anti-government propaganda and harming Bangladesh's reputation.

The allegations in the two cases filed a week apart, were similar.

Police arrested Khadija on September 17, 2022. She has been imprisoned since then.

According to the case details, Khadija and Delowar conspired to broadcast false, fabricated, and defamatory propaganda about the prime minister, various government agencies, and senior state officials in order to oust the country's legitimate administration. They were aiming to destroy communal harmony through their conspiracy by promoting enmity, hatred, and division among various communities, it said.

Khadija was 17 when the cases were filed under the Digital Security Act in 2020, but the case was filed showing her as an adult, according to her lawyer. 

Despite having kidney disease, Khadija's bail petitions were repeatedly denied by a Dhaka court.