Shafik Rehman remanded for 5 days in case over ‘plot to abduct’ PM’s son Joy

A Dhaka court has granted police five days to question journalist Shafik Rehman in a case filed over a ‘conspiracy to abduct’ the prime minister son.

Metropolitan Magistrate Majharul Islam approved police’s remand plea on Saturday afternoon.
 
Detective Branch’s Assistant Commissioner Hasan Arafat had produced Rehman before the court after the journalist was arrested earlier in the morning.
 
Arafat is also the case investigation officer.
 
Rehman was picked up by police detectives from his home at Dhaka's Eskaton around 7:30pm.
 
His wife Taleya Rehman told bdnews24.com that three DB officials entered their house and took Rehman with them.
 
Rehman was then taken to the DB office in the city’s Minto Road, only to be presented in court later.

After he was whisked away, DMP Deputy Commissioner (Media) Maruf Hossain Sardar had told bdnews24.com that Rehman was ‘arrested in a sedition case filed in 2015 at Paltan Police Station’.

The case was lodged on Aug 4 last year over the ‘conspiracy to abduct and murder’ Joy.

The prime accused in case is the BNP’s US unit leader Mohammad Ullah Mamun.

Rehman was apparently arrested for his alleged involvement in the conspiracy.

Mamun’s son Rizve Ahmed Caesar was sentenced to three and a half years in prison in March last year for bribing a former FBI official to gather information on Joy as part of the plot.

Caesar had pleaded guilty to bribing former FBI Special Agent Robert Lustyik for confidential information to locate and harm his political rival and others associated with the intended victim, according to a US Justice Department statement.

Although the Justice Department records kept the identity of the intended victim a secret, the ruling Awami League claimed that it was Joy.

Joy also had accused BNP leaders of conspiring to ‘abduct and kill him’ on a Facebook post.