CHATTOGRAM, Dec 3: The bail hearing of the Hindu priest Chinmoy Krishna Das Brahmachari, a spokesman of the Bangladesh Sammilito Sanatani Jagaran Jote, has been deferred to January 2.
He was arrested in a sedition case earlier. The hearing of his bail was scheduled to be held on Tuesday in the court of Chattogram Metropolitan Sessions Judge Md Saiful Islam. But he was not produced before the court and no lawyer had appeared on Chinmoy's behalf at the hearing.
After an initial hearing on the bail petition, the judge set January 2 for another hearing.
There was heavy security in the Chattogram court area for the bail hearing. Large deployments of law enforcement personnel from different security forces took up positions nearby.
The Chattogram Bar Association members held a protest march on the court premises in the morning.
Earlier, on November 26, Chattogram's 6th Metropolitan Magistrate Kazi Shariful Islam rejected Chinmoy's bail application in a sedition case and sent him to jail.
The decision angered members of the Hindu community, who staged a protest around the prison van for Chinmoy outside the court.
During the protest, several motorcycles and vehicles on the Court Road were damaged, as glass shards littered the second floor of the Court Mosque Complex, where lawyers' chambers are located.
After about two and a half hours, police used sound grenades to disperse the protesters and took Chinmoy Das into custody.
A lawyer Saiful Islam Alif was killed on the Rangam Convention Hall road by some criminals.
After Chinmoy was denied bail, his lawyers immediately filed a revision petition, seeking another hearing. However, no hearing took place that day.
Chinmoy was arrested at Dhaka's Shahjalal International Airport on November 25 in connection with the sedition case.
Police have filed three cases in connection with the violence, vandalism and obstruction of on duty police personnel outside the court premises on November 26.
On Saturday, the family members of the slain lawyer Saiful Islam Alif filed two cases with police on Friday night in connection with the killing amid clashes over the jailing of Hindu priest Chinmoy Krishna Das Bramachari after three days of Alif's murder.
Jamal Uddin, father of Alif, filed a case against 31 named people and 10 to 15 unnamed ones with Kotwali Police Station on Friday midnight Meanwhile, another case was filed by Khan-e-Alam, elder brother of Alif, against 116 people mentioning names and 400 to 500 unnamed ones.
But the name of Chinmoy Krishna, spokesperson for Sammilito Sanatani Jagaran Jote and former ESKCON leader was not mentioned in the case.
Chinmoy, head of the ISKCON-run Pundarik Dham Temple in Chattogram, had been speaking out against attacks on minorities across the country since August 5, calling for eight specific demands.
Following a public rally at Chattogram's Laldighi Maidan on October 25, a sedition case was filed on October 30 against Chinmoy and 18 others at Kotwali Police Station.
The Bangladesh Sammilito Sanatani Jagaran Jote has alleged that 70 Hindu lawyers have been accused in the murder case filed by Saiful's brother and claimed that it was done to 'block the bail hearing' for Chinmoy.
Nine people brought before the court have been shown arrested in Saiful's murder case. Another court remanded eight others accused in the attack on police on the road in front of Rangam Convention Hall for interrogation.
