A Dhaka court on Sunday granted the police a five-day remand for grilling the secretary of the human rights organisation Odhikar, Adilur Rahman Khan. Khan was arrested under the Information and Communications Technology Act from his Gulshan residence in the capital on Saturday night, the police said.The court also permitted the Detective Branch (DB) to conduct raids at Khan’s Gulshan residence and office for collecting more documents in this connection.
The judge of Dhaka’s Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court, Amit Kumar Dey, gave the order after hearing a petition from the police seeking a 10-day remand.
DB inspector Ashraful Islam, who is also the investigation officer of the case, produced Adilur Rahman Khan before the court seeking a 10-day remand in this connection.
Supreme Court Bar Association president and pro-Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) lawyers’ leader AJ Mohammad Ali defended Khan during the hearing on Sunday. Two officials from the Dutch and Swedish embassies in Dhaka were also present at the hearing.
Shayara Rahman Khan, wife of the arrested person, told The Independent that Khan was arrested from their Gulshan residence around 9pm by police personnel of the DB when he was returning home along with his family members.
The members of the DB arrived on the spot in a white microbus and a blue Mitsubishi Pajero jeep and asked Adilur Rahman Khan to follow them. At one stage, Khan was brought to the headquarters of the DB police in the capital’s Mintu Road, sources said.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) spokesperson Masudur Rahman said Adilur Rahman Khan was arrested under Section 57 (1) and (2) of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Act 2006.
Ashraful Islam, sub-inspector of DB police, lodged a case with Gulshan police station on Saturday evening against Adilur Rahman for violating Section 57 of the ICT Act 2006.
Adilur Rahman was arrested in connection with a report prepared by Odhikar that mentioned that 61 people were killed during an operation carried out by law enforcement agencies to disperse a sit-in programme organised by Hefazat-e-Islam activists at the city’s Motijheel area on May 5 this year, Masudur Rahman said.
Adilur Rahman Khan was the deputy attorney general during the previous BNP-led four-party alliance government.
After the arrest, Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) joint commissioner of DB, Monirul Islam, said in a press briefing that Adilur Rahman was engaged in seditious activities and so has been arrested on the basis of specific information.
Adilur Rahman was engaged in tarnishing the country’s image and goodwill abroad by preparing false and fabricated reports over the crackdown that occurred at Motijheel Shapla Chattar on May 5 this year, Monirul Islam claimed. The organisation has also uploaded several fake photos of the incident on its webpage, he added.
Later, the rights activist was placed before the court where Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Amit Kumar Dey passed a five-day remand order, rejecting Khan’s bail petition that was filed by his lawyer.
Meanwhile, Detective Branch police on Sunday night conducted a raid at residence and office of the human rights watchdog Odhikar at Gulshan area in the city getting permission from the court.
Deputy Commissioner of the Detective Branch Sheikh Nazmul Alam told The Independent, “We started the raid at around at around 8:30pm on Sunday night, which was conducted with the court’s permission.
Odhikar’s office is in the residence of its Secretary Adilur Rahman Khan, who was arrested on charges of distorting facts about the May 5 police drive against Hifazat-e Islam activists at Motijheel in Dhaka.
The police official, however, would not comment on what they had recovered during the raid.
A high official of Detective Branch police on condition not to be named told The Independent, “The Law enforcers have seized five Central Processing Units (CPU) including the personal laptop of secretary Adilur Rahman Khan during the raid.”
In his forwarding report, the IO said Khan confused the government and people of the country through publishing contradictory reports on Odhikar website, which claimed that 61 people were killed during the crackdown on Hefazat rally at Motijheel in the capital on May 5.
Meanwhile, Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) in a statement expressed its grave concern over Khan’s arrest.
“Every citizen has the right to make constructive criticism. The government should not go for such a step which may curb the freedom of expression,” TIB executive director Dr Iftekharuzzaman said in a statement.
NHRC chairman Dr Mizanur Rahman also expressed his concern over the arrest saying that the way the human rights activists is arrested is not the reflection of a civil society.
Courtesy of The Independent
