Jubo League leaders Samrat, Arman remanded in arms and drugs cases

Police have been granted 10 days to grill Ismail Chowdhury Samrat, the expelled chief of Jubo League Dhaka South, in two separate cases involving illegal arms and drugs.

Court Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 15 Oct 2019, 07:55 AM
Updated : 15 Oct 2019, 09:18 AM

His associate Enamul Hoque Arman has been placed on a five-day remand in an arms-related case.

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Mohammed Tofazzal Hossain issued the remand order on Tuesday after police sought 20 days’ custody to question Samrat.

Meanwhile, scores of Jubo League leaders and activists thronged the court premises to demand the release of Samrat as law enforcement struggled to keep them at bay.

The demonstrators lined the streets outside the court and Johnson Road as chants in support of Samrat rang out.

The controversial Jubo League leader reportedly went into hiding after the Rapid Action Battalion busted several illegal casino operations inside clubs in Motijheel on Sept 18.

He was later arrested along with his close aide Arman by the elite police unit in Cumilla’s Chauddagram on Oct 6 over alleged ties to the casino business in the capital.

The RAB later conducted a five-hour raid on Samrat’s office in Kakrail’s Bhuiyan Trade Centre with him in tow.

They subsequently recovered a foreign pistol, 1,160 yaba tablets, 19 bottles of foreign liquor, two kangaroo hides and 'electrical torture equipment'.

A mobile court handed Samrat a six-month prison sentence for possession of the kangaroo skins under the Wild Animal Protection Act and he was later sent to the Dhaka Central Jail in Keraniganj.

Two cases were also filed against him under the Narcotics Control Act and Arms Act with the Ramna Police Station.

But the police’s plea for a 20-day remand to grill Samrat in the cases was stayed after he was hospitalised for chest pains. He was sent back to jail after being released from hospital on Saturday.