BNP leader Salahuddin reluctant to return to Bangladesh immediately, claims public prosecutor

BNP leader Salahuddin Ahmed is apparently trying to prolong his case in India in a bid to extend his stay in the country, alleges IC Jha, the public prosecutor (PP) in the case.

A former Bangladesh minister, Ahmed was arrested under Section 14 of India’s Foreigners Act in Meghalaya’s capital Shillong on May 11 last year on charges of illegally entering India.
 
At present he is out on bail, but he has been barred from moving out of the jurisdiction of the Shillong court.
 
Jha said the hearing of witnesses and submission of evidence would be over by March.
 

Salahuddin Ahmed ( File Photo)

At the last hearing on Feb 18, Stephen Sailo, head of the Department of Urology, North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences, Shillong, deposed in the presence of P Lamare, the investigating officer.

To date, as many as five witnesses have been examined and cross-examined. The investigation officer will be the last witness to be examined.

“Ahmed has already admitted before the court that he is a Bangladesh national and has entered Indian territory without any valid documents. So it’s an open-and-shut case,” Jha said.

“But from the arguments of Ahmed’s lawyers in court it appears that he simply wants to kill some time here,” Jha added.

The BNP leader has rented a sprawling bungalow on the outskirts of Shillong.

A senior Meghalaya police official too claimed that from Ahmed’s demeanour it was very clear that he was not keen to return to Bangladesh immediately.

Jha and the police official cited the current “political situation” in Bangladesh as a reason for Ahmed’s reluctance to return to his country at this juncture.

Several BNP leaders were allegedly being killed and incarcerated in Bangladesh.

Recently, Bangladesh Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal had said that BNP leader Salahuddin Ahmed would be brought back to Bangladesh once his trial in India had been completed.