Police have detained Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury, former power, energy adviser to Sheikh Hasina, from the capital on Tuesday night.
He was detained from the Gulshan area of Dhaka by the Detective Police (DB) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP).
DB Chief Additional Police Commissioner Rezaul Karim Malik has confirmed the news.
Tawfiq-e-Elahi was taken to the DB office, he added.
It could not be immediately known in which case he was arrested.
He was accused in many cases filed after August 5, when the Awami League government was toppled in the face of a student-led mass uprising.