Hriday Chandra Mondal, a schoolteacher who was arrested for discussing the distinction between science and religion in a classroom in Munshiganj, has been freed on bail.
The District and Sessions Judge Court accepted his bail plea, the third attempt in 19 days, on Sunday.
Hriday was freed after the bail order reached the jail at about 5:30 pm, said defence lawyer Shahin Mohammad Amanullah, reports bdnews24.com.
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’