A special tribunal in Dhaka has accepted the charge sheet in the 2015 killing of writer-blogger Avijit Roy.
The court also issued the arrest warrant against two fugitive suspects, sacked Bangladesh Army major Syed Mohammad Ziaul Haque alias Zia and Akram Hossain alias Abir and dropped names of 15 others from the chargesheet.
Judge Md Mujibur Rahman of Dhaka Anti-terrorism Special Tribunal handed the orders on Thursday (Apr 11).
People, whose names were dropped from the list of accused, are- Sadek Ali alias Mithu, Mohammad Touhidur Rahman, Aminul Mallik, Zafran Hasan, Julhash Biswas, Abdur Sabur alias Raju Sad, Mainul Hasan Shamim, Manna Yahia alias Mannan Rahi, Abul Bashar, Mukul, Rana, Selim Hasan, Ali alias Khalil, Anik and Antu.
On Mar 13, investigation officer (IO) of the case and Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime chief Monirul Islam filed the charge sheet
As many as six people -- Zia, Mozammel Hossain alias Saimon, Abu Siddique Sohel, Akram Hossain alias Abir, Md Mukul Rana, Md Arafat Rahman, Shafiur Rahman Farabi were named in the charge sheet.
Bangladeshi American writer, Avijit Roy, who founded the blog ‘Muktomona’ (free thinkers) and his wife Rafida Ahmed Bonya were attacked on the night of Feb 26, 2015, on the Dhaka University Campus.
The assailants, armed with meat cleavers, attacked the couple as they came out from the Ekushey Book Fair.
Avijit suffered a deep gash on his head and died while Bonya survived but lost a finger in the assault.
Islamist zealots had been threatening Avijit, a bioengineer and a naturalised US citizen, for his active campaign against Islamist radicals, for quite some time.
His father Ajay Roy, a well-known physicist who has taught at the Dhaka University for a long time, started a police case over the incident.
Since the killing of Avijit, several others, including online activists, writers, publishers, members from the minority communities have been attacked or killed in a similar fashion by machete-wielding attackers, targeting the head to ensure immediate death.