Zakir Hossain, Dhaka
The Bangladesh High Court on Sunday rejected the bail petition of former ISKCON leader Chandan Kumar Dhar, popularly known as Chinmoy Krishna Das Brahmachari, in the murder case filed over the killing of lawyer Saiful Islam Alif in Chattogram.
Chinmoy, spokesperson for the Bangladesh Sammilit Sanatani Jagran Jote, is in jail in connection with several cases filed after violent clashes near the Chattogram court building on November 26, 2024.
A High Court bench of Justice KM Zahid Sarwar and Justice Sheikh Abu Taher discharged the rule issued over his bail petition in the murder case, effectively denying him bail. The bench fixed Monday for orders on his bail petitions in four other cases involving attacks on police, obstruction of duty, vandalism of vehicles, assaults on lawyers and litigants, and crude bomb explosions.
Advocate Apurba Kumar Bhattacharya appeared for Chinmoy, while deputy attorney general Syeda Sazia Sharmin and assistant attorney general Md Alamin represented the state.
Apurba told journalists that the High Court rejected the bail plea as the trial court had started recording witness statements in the murder case. He also said Chinmoy was physically ill and had been suffering in jail since November 25, 2024.
Speaking to journalists after the verdict, Apurba said Chinmoy had not been granted bail in the lawyer murder case as the court discharged the rule. He added that verdicts on the four other bail petitions would be delivered on Monday.
The murder case was filed after lawyer Saiful Islam Alif was beaten and hacked to death during clashes on November 26, 2024, following the rejection of Chinmoy’s bail petition in a sedition case. Saiful’s father, Jamal Uddin, later filed a murder case naming 31 accused.
The sedition case was filed on October 31, 2024, with Kotwali Police Station by Firoz Khan, then general secretary of the Chandgaon Mohra ward BNP unit in Chattogram city, against Chinmoy and 19 others over alleged disrespect to the national flag. Firoz was later relieved from the BNP.
Chinmoy was arrested in Dhaka on November 25, 2024, in the sedition case and produced before a Chattogram court the next day. After the court rejected his bail and ordered him to jail, his followers staged protests on the court premises and blocked the prison van carrying him. The situation later turned violent, leading to Saiful’s death.
The High Court granted Chinmoy bail in the sedition case on April 30, 2025, but the Appellate Division later stayed that order. After the bail order, he was shown arrested in five other cases, including the lawyer murder case.
On September 1, 2025, the High Court issued rules asking why Chinmoy should not be granted bail in the five cases. Final hearings on the rules concluded on May 7.
According to his lawyer, Chinmoy has been accused in a total of eight cases, including murder and sedition. He has secured bail in three cases from the High Court and lower court, including one on April 16 this year in a case filed nearly three years ago by BNP leader Mir Mohammad Nasir Uddin.