A court has granted bail to Hriday Chandra Mondol, a schoolteacher who was detained for 19 days after he was arrested for discussing the distinction between science and religion in a classroom in Munshiganj, reports bdnews.
The District and Sessions Judge Court accepted his bail plea, a third attempt, on Sunday.
Lawyer Siraj Islam Paltu represented the state at the hearing, while Shaheen Mohammad Amanullah and several others appeared for Hriday.
In an unscheduled class on Mar 20, Hriday was discussing topics of science with a group of 10th graders. During the session, some pupils made queries about the relationship between science and religion and secretly recorded the teacher's response on a mobile phone.
According to an audio clip they later shared on social media, Hriday had argued that “religion is a matter of faith” while “science looks at the evidence”.
On Mar 22, two days after the recording was made, the school’s headmaster told the media that students and other people from the community were demonstrating outside the school, demanding punishment for Hriday.
The teacher was subsequently suspended by the school. Later that day, he was arrested in connection with a case filed by the school's office assistant Asad.
Hriday saw his initial appeal for bail in the Munshiganj Judicial Magistrates Court on Mar 28 rejected. Later, on Apr 4, the District and Sessions Judge's Court also refused to release him on bail.
The handling of the incident was widely criticised with Amnesty International, the Dhaka University Teachers’ Association, and writer Dr Muhammed Zafar Iqbal all calling for the teacher’s release. Education Minister Dipu Moni called the handling of the situation ‘unfortunate’.
Bail was finally granted to Hriday on Sunday.
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