Eden College Chhatra League President Riva remanded

She stands accused in an attempt to murder case at Shahbagh Police Station

A Dhaka court has remanded Eden Mohila College Chhatra League President Tamanna Jasmine Riva for questioning in police custody for two days in an attempt to murder case at Dhaka’s Shahbagh Police Station.

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Mostafizur Rahman made the decision after a hearing on Monday.

Sub-Inspector Mohammad Masud Sardar of the Detective Branch of Dhaka Metropolitan Police had brought Riva to court to petition for her to be remanded for 10 days. Defence lawyer Farzana Yasmin Rakhi called for the remand petition to be scrapped and filed for bail.

After hearing from both sides, the court remanded Riva for two days.

Riva was arrested in Dhaka on Sunday night, according to Rezaul Karim Mallick of the Detective Branch of Dhaka Metropolitan Police.

Riva left the Eden College campus and went into hiding during the student-led mass uprising in July and August. She had not made any public appearances since then.

Police arrested her over 'political activities on behalf of the Chhatra League,' the student wing of the Awami League banned by the interim government.

Riva, who made headlines several times over 'controversial activities', was a student of the 2009-10 academic batch in the college’s Department of Marketing.

The DB had previously arrested Nishita Iqbal Nodi, former vice-president of the Bangladesh Chhatra League.

Nodi was shown arrested in an anti-terrorism case filed with the Kalabagan Police Station and remanded for two days.

After the fall of the Awami League government, the interim government banned the Bangladesh Chhatra League, the student wing of the Awami League, on Oct 23, according to the demands by the Anti-discrimination Student Movement that toppled the Awami League government. The Chhatra League was blamed for much of the ‘violence’ surrounding the movement.

The student faction of the fallen Awami League was accused of “killing students and general people”, causing “risks to many lives” during the quota reform movement and other movements against the Awami League government, and engaging in “violence” at different times.

The Ministry of Home Affairs issued a notice listing the organisation as a ‘violent entity,’ as per the Anti-Terrorism Act, 2009.

“Bangladesh Chhatra League, an affiliate to the Bangladesh Awami League is declared banned and according to section-2A of the act, the organisation called Bangladesh Chhatra League is listed as a banned entity,” the notice said.