News Desk :
The hearing of a 10-day remand petition against Shaukat Mahmood, former Jatiya Press Club president and Janata Party Bangladesh general secretary, in an Anti-Terrorism case filed at Ramna Police Station is set for Thursday.
The remand petition will be heard at the court of the Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate, according to Sub-Inspector Jinnat Ali of the Prosecution Division. Shaukat is to be brought to court from jail for the hearing, reports bdnews24.com
Shaukat was arrested on Sunday in connection with a case filed against Bangladeshi-origin US citizen Enayet Karim Chowdhury over his involvement in a “conspiracy to topple” the interim government.
After his arrest, investigation officer Inspector Akhtar Morshed of the Detective Branch’s (DB) Ramna unit, produced him in court on Monday.
The DB brought him to court in a microbus and kept him in the CMM court lock-up.
The remand hearing was rescheduled to Thursday due to the unavailability of the case documents, SI Jinnat said.
In the remand plea, Inspector Akhtar Morshed said Shaukat and several unnamed suspects, working with Enayet, tried to stir fear among the public and threaten the country’s security, unity and sovereignty.
He also claimed they held secret meetings with political leaders, high-ranking officials and businesspeople to topple the interim government.
The plea also said Shaukat, along with others, had been trying to destabilise Bangladesh’s political, economic and social situation on behalf of a “powerful foreign nation”. Police want to question him to find out which groups he “conspired with”.
According to the case statement, Enayet moved to the United States in 1988 and became a US citizen in 2004. He allegedly came to Bangladesh on Sept 6 as an agent of a foreign intelligence agency to help overthrow the interim government.
The case says that around 10:30am on Sept 13, he was seen “moving suspiciously” in a Toyota Prado SUV in the capital’s Minto Road. Police stopped him after becoming suspicious. When asked why he was there, he could not give an answer. Police then detained him and seized two iPhones from his possession.
An Anti-Terrorism case was then filed over the incident at Ramna Model Police Station. Kazi Md Mamunur Rashid, secretary general of the Raushon Ershad wing of the Jatiya Party, and several others have since been arrested in connection with the case.
