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“I was married to Saudi Ambassador Essa (Yousef Essa Al Duhailan). Essa alleges that I have spoilt his child. It is not true at all,” she says
Published : 17 Apr 2025, 02:04 PM
Former Miss Earth Bangladesh Meghna Alam says that her only “romantic relationship” is with Saudi Arabian Ambassador to Dhaka Essa Yousef Essa Al Duhailan.
Meghna made the remarks with the permission of the Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Masum Mia when she was taken to court on Thursday.
She was brought to the court for a hearing to show her arrested in a case filed at Dhanmondi Police Station over luring a foreign ambassador into a romantic trap.
Meghna was arrested from her house in Dhaka’s Bashundhara Residential Area on Apr 9 and detained for a month under the Special Powers Act. After widespread criticism of the decision, police have now filed a fraud case against her.
Detective Branch Inspector Akhtar Morshed, the case investigation officer, petitioned to have Meghna shown arrested in the case filed on Wednesday and moved for a seven-day remand to interrogate an alleged “accomplice” Dewan Samir, the owner of manpower exporting company Sanjana International.
Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Omar Faruq Faruqi represented the state and petitioned for Meghna to be shown arrested at Thursday’s hearing.
“The accused have formed a ring and used innovative strategies to try and put a foreign ambassador and foreign citizens working at embassies in honey traps and extort them for huge amounts of money. They have been involved in such fraud for a long time. Their latest attempt was to frame Saudi Ambassador Essa. It is alleged that they demanded $5 million from him.”
Faruqi referred to Meghna as Meghla during his speech. At one point in the proceedings, Meghna asked for her name to be pronounced properly.
The judge then asked whether any lawyers were present to represent the accused. Meghna said that there were no lawyers, but she wanted to speak for herself.
The court gave her permission and she said, “My name is Meghna, not Meghla. We are speaking of the Saudi ambassador. My question is – can anyone meet with the Saudi ambassador if they want to? Will you be able to?”
The judge then stopped her and instructed her to speak on the case.
Then, Meghna said: “I have been sent to jail without a trial. I have been told that I will not get a lawyer. The situation is that my only relationship is with Ambassador Essa, and with no one else.”
She claimed, “I was married to Saudi Ambassador Essa. Essa alleges that I have spoilt his child. It is not true. I spoke to Essa about this. I asked him to refrain from spreading such information. I spoke to DG Shafiqur of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs about these issues. After that, the police arrested me.”
Samir told the court during his remand hearing, “I am being called Meghna Alam’s boyfriend. This is incorrect information. I have no relationship with her. I am an ordinary person. I have been abroad for a long time. I am a remittance fighter. I do not know anything about the incidents in the case.”
Later, the court ordered that both of them be shown arrested in the case. In addition, Samir was remanded for interrogation for five days.
While being taken from the court to jail, Meghna told reporters: “I only have a relationship with Essa, I have no relationship with anyone else. I am not getting justice.”
Then police personnel then surrounded her and took her to jail.
Meghna, a model and chairman of the Miss Bangladesh Foundation, was the winner of Miss Earth Bangladesh in 2020.
Meghna was detained from a house in Dhaka’s Bashundhara Residential Area on Apr 9.
Shortly before her arrest, she went live on Facebook, claiming that “people identifying themselves as police” were attempting to break into her home. The livestream, which lasted over 12 minutes, was cut off shortly after she was detained and was later deleted from her account, though clips had already spread on social media by then.
She was presented before a Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate's Court by the Detective Branch (DB) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police. Metropolitan Magistrate Md Sefat Ullah ordered that she be held in custody for 30 days under the Special Powers Act, following a petition by the DB.
Amid mounting criticism of her detention, DB chief Additional Commissioner Rezaul Karim Mallick was removed from his post.
On Sunday, the High Court issued a rule asking why Meghna’s detention under the Special Powers Act should not be declared illegal and why she should not be released from detention.
It also asked why the manner in which she was detained from her house should not be declared unconstitutional and a violation of human rights.
On Sunday, Law Advisor Asif Nazrul told the media at the Secretariat: “We acknowledge that her arrest did not follow proper procedure. But just because she was not arrested following the proper procedure does not mean that there is no evidence or allegation of a crime against her.”
“The Ministry of Home Affairs will soon take appropriate action regarding what needs to be done in this matter."
But Khuda Baksh Chowdhury, special assistant to the chief advisor, said on Tuesday that her arrest was not legal and that it was not uncommon for the law under which she was arrested to be used in this manner.
Amid widespread discussion of the situation, Samir was arrested and remanded for five days in a fraud case at Vatara Police Station on Apr 12. Then a separate case was filed against Meghna and Samir at Dhanmondi Police Station for “honey trapping”.
The case alleges that Meghna Alam, Dewan Samir and 2/3 unidentified persons are active members of an “organised fraud ring”.
"They have been using various beautiful girls to lure diplomats/representatives of various foreign countries working in Bangladesh and wealthy domestic businessmen into romantic affairs and have been using various illegal methods to extort money by threatening them with defamation."
The complaint states that Samir is the CEO of a company called Kawai Group and the owner of a manpower export firm called Sanjana International. He previously had a business called Miri International Event Management Limited.
The case alleges that Samir used to appoint “attractive, smart girls” as brand ambassadors of his company, so that “easy access” could be ensured to foreign diplomats and wealthy businessmen.
"As part of a conspiracy to make his manpower and other businesses more profitable, Dewan Samir, with the help of his co-defendants, targeted and blackmailed various diplomats for malicious purposes, demanding large sums of money as ransom."
