A Cumilla court on Sunday asked Mamunul Haque, former joint secretary general of Hefazat-e-Islam and Mawlana Khaled Saifullah Ayubi to appear before it on December 23 in a case filed over delivering provocative speech at a mahfil in 2020.

Judge Irfanul Haque Chowdhury of Cumilla Cognizance Court-7 fixed the date when the two Hefazat leaders appeared before the court in the case on Sunday, said Advocate Nurul Islam, a counsel of the state.

On December 17, last year, police filed a case against six people including Mamunul for organising a mahfil in Chandina upazila of the district without the consent of the local administration and delivering provocative speech at the mahfil.

On April 18, a joint team of Tejgaon Division police and DMP’s Detective Branch arrested Mamunul from Jamia Rahmania Arabia Madrasah in Mohammadpur in separate cases.

He was remanded for 18 days in six different cases over rape, vandalism and Hefazat mayhem. Among them, three were filed by the district police, two by the CID, and one by the PBI.

Mamunul was held with a woman he claims to be his second wife from a resort in Sonargaon on April 3.

Later, Hefazat leaders claimed that Mamunul went to the resort with his ‘second wife’ where locals confined and harassed him before calling in the police.