A Dhaka court on Tuesday placed former ministers Dr Dipu Moni and Arif Khan Joy on remand for four days and five days respectively for having potential knowledge about an alleged state-backed killing during the job quota reform movement.

The case filed on 13 August also has former road transport minister Obaidul Quader and ousted premier Hasina as accused, and was the first case filed against Hasina since she fled the country on 5 August.

According to case statement, a grocer named Abu Sayed was killed in indiscriminate police firing in the capital’s Bosila area on 19 July, at the height of the students’ government job quota reform movement.

On Tuesday, Dhaka Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sultan Shohagh Uddin passed the remand order after Mohammadpur Police Station’s inspector Tofazzal Hossain asked for 10-day remands for both former social welfare minister Dipu Moni and ex-sports minister Arif Khan Joy.

During interrogation, the two Awami League leaders could provide valuable information about the higher authorities who ordered and instigated the police to fire at student protesters and their supporters on 20 July.

The duo could also help uncover the facts behind the murder of Abu Sayed, police said in their remand plea.