The party of slain Bangladeshi student leader Sharif Osman Hadi has rejected the police chargesheet filed in his murder case, accusing the state machinery of being involved in the killing and warning of escalation if justice is not delivered.

Inquilab Moncho on Tuesday dismissed the chargesheet submitted by the Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s (DMP) Detective Branch, which pressed formal charges against 17 people, including prime suspect Faisal Karim Masud.

Police claimed Hadi was killed due to “political vengeance” on the instructions of Awami League-nominated ward councillor Taizul Islam Chowdhury Bappi.

Rejecting the police version, Inquilab Moncho member secretary Abdullah al Jaber said “even a lunatic would not believe” that Hadi was murdered merely on the instructions of a ward councillor.

He asserted that the party does not accept the chargesheet and alleged the involvement of an entire “criminal syndicate” along with the “state machinery”.

“Until they are brought to justice, our struggle will not stop. Any charge sheet that does not include their names is not acceptable to us,” Jaber said after the conclusion of the party’s ‘March for Justice’ programme.

He said Inquilab Moncho had carried out peaceful programmes to press for justice, but the chargesheet showed that the government had ignored public sentiment and “treated the people as fools”.

Jaber warned that if justice for Hadi’s murder is not ensured and what he described as “Indian hegemony” is not ended, the people would decide the consequences.

“These people have shed blood; if necessary, they will take blood as well,” he said.

Hadi, 32, an Inquilab Moncho spokesperson, rose to national prominence during the July–August 2024 mass protests that led to the fall of the Hasina-led government. He was shot in the head on December 12 while campaigning in Dhaka for the February 12 elections, in which he was also a parliamentary candidate. He was airlifted to Singapore for treatment but died on December 18.

At a press briefing in Dhaka on Tuesday, DMP Detective Branch Additional Commissioner Md Shafiqul Islam said the alleged shooter, Masud, was directly involved with the Awami League’s student wing, Chhatra League. He said Hadi was murdered on the instructions of Bappi, who allegedly helped Masud and another prime suspect, Alamgir Sheikh, flee after the killing. Bappi was also the president of Pallabi Thana Chhatra League.

The interim government led by Muhammad Yunus last year banned both the Awami League and its student wing.

Hadi’s killing has triggered fresh political unrest in Bangladesh and strained ties with India, after some groups alleged an Indian link to the crime. New Delhi has strongly rejected the accusations, calling them a “false narrative”.

“We have rejected the false narrative that has been projected in Bangladesh. The law and order situation and developments happening there is the responsibility of the government of Bangladesh. To portray a narrative where things go in another direction is completely false, and we reject that,” Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said last month in New Delhi.

He said India stands for strengthening its ties with the people of Bangladesh and favours peace and stability in the country. India has also sought a thorough probe into Hadi’s killing amid a sharp downturn in bilateral ties.

On December 28, Dhaka Metropolitan Police claimed that suspects Masud and Sheikh “crossed into the Indian state of Meghalaya via the Haluaghat border with the help of local associates”. However, security agencies in Meghalaya dismissed the claim as “unfounded and misleading”.

“There is no evidence to suggest that any individual crossed the international border from the Haluaghat sector into Meghalaya. The BSF has neither detected nor received any report of such an incident,” Border Security Force Inspector General in Meghalaya O P Opadhyay had said.

The Meghalaya Police also said there was “no input or intelligence to corroborate” the claim of the suspects’ presence in the Garo Hills region, which falls under Meghalaya’s western sector along the Bangladesh border and is guarded by the BSF.