Chaos erupted inside a Dhaka courtroom on Wednesday as defence and prosecution lawyers engaged in a physical scuffle during the bail hearing of individuals accused of defacing a mural of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore. The unprecedented scene unfolded at the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) Court, forcing the presiding judge to temporarily abandon the bench as tempers flared and violence broke out directly before the court.
The dispute stems from an incident on 10 October, when police apprehended four individuals—including Al-Noor Mohammad Ayas, the member secretary of the Rashtra Sanlap Forum—whilst they were attempting to smear lime and ink over a portrait of Tagore painted on a wall outside the Shilpakala Academy in the capital. Following their arrest, Shahbagh Police Station charged the suspects with criminal conspiracy, inciting racial and religious hatred, and hurting religious sentiments. A magistrate subsequently granted police custody to interrogate Ayas and a co-accused for three days, whilst two other suspects were remanded for two days.
Upon the expiration of their police remand, investigating officer Sub-Inspector Abdul Gaffar Himel produced Ayas and co-accused Marjia Khondoker Rimi before the CMM Court, requesting that they be remanded to judicial custody. In his submission, the investigating officer stated that interrogation during police custody had yielded critical leads regarding other absconding suspects involved in the incident. He urged the court to keep the accused behind bars to ensure a thorough investigation, prevent witness tampering, and allow authorities sufficient time to verify their addresses and identities.
Countering the prosecution, defence counsel Monir Hossain filed a bail application, arguing that the charges brought against his clients were baseless. Hossain emphasized compassionate grounds, pointing out that Ayas was suffering from severe health issues and that Rimi was the mother of a young infant. Addressing the motives behind the incident, the defence lawyer maintained that the suspects were acting out of frustration against perceived foreign hegemony, asserting that they were merely advocating for local artists by opposing foreign artistic representations on public walls.
The proceedings escalated rapidly when public prosecutor Omar Farooq Farooqui launched a scathing critique of the defense’s arguments. Farooqui contended that defacing the portrait of a globally revered literary figure like Tagore was a deliberate attempt to provoke minority communities and trigger civil unrest. He accused the suspects of resorting to sensationalism to gain traction on social media, alleging that their actions posed a threat to social harmony.
As Farooqui levelled political allegations against the defence team, heated verbal exchanges erupted across the floor. The argument quickly deteriorated into physical violence in front of the bench. During the scuffle, defence lawyer Al Mohsin Touhid was assaulted, leaving his shirt torn. Seeing the courtroom collapse into chaos, the presiding magistrate retired to his chambers at 4:37 pm.
Order was eventually restored after senior counsel from both sides intervened to calm the situation. The magistrate returned to the bench at 4:42 pm and formally rejected the bail applications, ordering both Ayas and Rimi to be remanded to prison pending further trial proceedings.
