Metropolitan Magistrate Fazlur Karim Chowdhury granted the remand for six days as the police submitted a prayer for ten days.

Meanwhile, the students enforced a daylong strike bringing the campus life to a halt.

RU Registrar Abdus Salam told The Daily Star, "If any teacher is arrested and accused in a criminal case, he will be suspended. Yet official procedures will be completed after the strike is withdrawn."

Pleading the remand prayer, Court Inspector Mahbubul Kuddus Siddiki told the court that the police already detected the motive behind the murder and Mohiuddin played the principal role.

"His remand is necessary for the national interest. Police now need to know if there are more persons involved and why a man of a noble profession and a conscious citizen like him would indulge in a heinous crime like murder," Siddiki told the court.

Advocate Saiful Alam Shelly argued for the defence and said the RU vice-chancellor (VC) had ordered to process Mohiuddin's promotion last month and it had already begun. "And so, his promotion could not be a motive for the murder."

Mohiuddin was taken to the court in a bulletproof jacket. He was looking pale wearing a shirt and a lungi, but was seen consoling his wife who was often breaking down in tears.

Answering to questions, Salam said Mohiuddin was desperate for his promotion.

Explaining the VC's order to begin processing Mohiuddin's promotion, Salam said it was done following Mohiuddin's complaint that he was being deprived by the planning committee and his claim that he fulfilled the conditions for a promotion.

In a parallel development in the case yesterday evening, Nazmul, one of the arrested five, in a confessional statement to Metropolitan Magistrate Zobeda Khatun said an RU unit Islami Chhatra Shibir (ICS) leader named Shalehi and Mohiuddin planned the murder to gain control over the geology and mining department.

Both Mohiuddin and Shalehi were present during the killing and confirmed Taher's death by personally touching his body in Taher's housekeeper Jahangir's room, Nazmul said in his confession.

Jahangir's confessional statement was recorded on Tuesday where he confessed his involvement with the killing and implicated Mohiuddin as the mastermind.

The RU campus was volatile with protest marches and rallies yesterday as the geology and mining department students enforced a strike on the campus demanding speedy trial of the case.

Protesters marched covering their faces with black bandanas; no class or examination was held. The departments were closed as the students locked the offices.

The students also covered the faces of the statues of the liberation war memorial, Sabas Bangladesh.

RU Teachers' Association (RUTA) held a two-hour token hunger strike in front of the senate building. It also held a rally with its president Prof Nazrul Islam in the chair.

The speakers at the rally said they were feeling ashamed to find a teacher arrested for the killing.

Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) also continued its protest demanding removal of the VC for ordering Mohiuddin's promotion. "The VC lost his moral right to stay in the post because of assisting a killer", said Ibrahim Hossain Moon, president of the university unit of the BCL.

Teachers' Reactions on Arrest

Prof Altaf Hossain, the vice-chancellor, said the law will follow its course. "It will be a painful incident for me and the university if he is found guilty."

Prof Abdus Salam, convener of the white panel teachers, said he was anxious about teachers' security in the face of politicking among them.

RUTA General Secretary Prof Abdul Hai Talukhdar said, "The prestige of our noble profession is getting lost. All teachers will have to face criticisms for the arrest if the allegation is found to be true".

Progressive Teachers' Association Convener Prof Muhammad Nurullah said it is sad and unbelievable to see a university teacher as a killer.

Prof Moloy Kumar Bhoumik, chairman of the management department, said he was feeling ashamed as a teacher at the university.