A Chattogram Metropolitan Magistrate Court has approved the application to show the arrest of Chinmoy Krishna Das, a former ISKCON leader and Sanatani Jagaran Jote mouthpiece, in connection with the murder of lawyer Saiful Islam Alif. Das, who is currently jailed in a separate sedition case, was shown arrested in the Alif murder case after a virtual court hearing on Monday.
During the hearing, Assistant Public Prosecutor Md Raihanul Wazed Chowdhury informed the court that the investigating officer of the Alif murder case had applied for the arrest of Chinmoy Krishna Das as an accused based on the investigation. Chattogram Metropolitan Magistrate Sixth Court S. M. Alauddin Mahmud granted the application following the hearing.
Chinmoy Krishna Das was not physically produced in court due to security concerns, but participated in the virtual hearing from jail. The court posed several questions to the accused during the session.
Chinmoy Krishna Das is currently serving time in jail for a sedition case filed at Kotwali Police Station. He was arrested in Dhaka on November 25 last year for allegedly insulting the national flag. The following day, on November 26, Das was presented before the Chattogram Court.
On the same day, a violent altercation broke out between Chinmoy Das’s supporters and the police in the court area. In the chaos, lawyer Saiful Islam Alif was tragically hacked to death outside the courthouse. His father, Jamal Uddin, filed a murder case with Kotwali Police Station, naming 31 people in the lawsuit. Since then, police have arrested 21 individuals in connection with the incident.
