Court allows police to take Mahmudur on fresh five-day remand to interrogate over plot to kill Joy

A Dhaka court has granted police five more days to interrogate Bengali-language daily Amar Desh's Acting Editor Mahmudur Rahman in a case over the plot to abduct and kill prime minister’s son Sajeeb Wazed Joy.

The investigation officer in the case, Detective Branch (DB) of police’s Assistant Commissioner Hasan Arfat sought ten-day remand producing Rahman in the court on Wednesday after the expiry of his earlier five-day remand.

After the hearing, Metropolitan Magistrate Pranab Kumar Hui granted five-day remand, Public Prosecutor Tapas Pal told bdnews24.com.

Earlier on Apr 25, Metropolitan Magistrate Golam Nabi had granted police five-day remand of Rahman.

Last year, a court in New York convicted Washington-based BNP leader Mahmud Ullah Mamun’s son Rizvi Ahmed Caesar for bribing FBI official Robert Lustyik to get information on Joy.

It had also found their middleman, Johannes Thaler, guilty.

Lustyik had been convicted later for taking bribes for imparting the confidential information.

Court documents did not mention a name, but described the victim as 'son of the Prime Minister of Bangladesh and an advisor to the Prime Minister on information technology.'

It said Caesar had admitted that he intended to 'scare,' 'kidnap' and 'hurt' Joy.

Documents submitted to the court of the Southern District of New York also say Ceaser gave the information to a 'journalist in Bangladesh' and 'obtained in return approximately $30,000'.

In May last year, police in Dhaka initiated a case over the plot to abduct the prime minister’s son.

On Apr 16, Shafik Rehman was arrested at his Dhaka home in that case.

After interrogating Shafik Rehman, DB had claimed that Mahmudur Rahman too was involved in the plot. To verify this, they sought to take him on remand for questioning.

In its remand appeal on Wednesday, police said that Rahman had though revealed some vital clues into the case he was still holding some information.

A fresh remand was needed to question him further to ascertain whether any other leader was involved in the conspiracy.

Mahmudur’s lawyers seeking bail argued that his client had been in jail for the past three years.

They also questioned how Mahmudur could be involved in the conspiracy when he did not visit the USA at the time of the incident.

A former advisor to Khaleda Zia, Mahmudur was arrested in 2013 on charges of inciting communal tension and since then he has been lodged in jail.