A Dhaka court on Friday sent former assistant superintendent of police (ASP) Fazlur Rahman to jail in a case over the alleged enforced disappearance of Sukhoranjan Bali, a defence witness for late Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami leader Delwar Hossain Sayeedi, who disappeared from the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) premises in 2012.
Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Mahbub Alam passed the order after ICT investigation officer Md Helalul Islam sought to have the accused kept in custody pending completion of the investigation.
Md Morshed Alam, officer-in-charge of the holding cell at the Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court, confirmed the matter.
Fazlur Rahman was arrested from his residence in Dhaka on Thursday night by the Detective Branch (DB) of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP).
According to the prosecution's petition, Bali arrived with his lawyer at the main gate of the ICT at the Old High Court building at around 9:30am on November 5, 2012, to testify in favor of Sayeedi.
The petition alleged that moments after his vehicle stopped, plainclothes personnel forcibly pulled him out of the car and took him away in a white double-cabin pickup truck. He was allegedly blindfolded, tortured and held at a secret detention facility for two months.
It further alleged that Bali was later taken across the border into India, where he remained detained at Dum Dum Central Correctional Home for five years. Following reports in the Indian media about his detention, his son, Apurba Bali, travelled to India and secured his release on bail.
According to the petition, the investigation and witness statements have established that Fazlur Rahman, along with other DB officers and personnel, arrived at the tribunal premises in two double-cabin vehicles on the day of the incident and forcibly took Bali from in front of the Old High Court building to the DB office.
After being held in the DB lock-up, Bali was allegedly taken across the border into India.
The investigation officer told the court that sufficient evidence had been found linking Fazlur Rahman to the alleged offence and sought an order to keep him in custody until the investigation is completed.
According to the case documents, Bali, a resident of Pirojpur, disappeared from the tribunal premises on November 5, 2012, after arriving to testify for Sayeedi.
At the time, law enforcement agencies claimed he had been found near the border. However, his family and human rights organizations maintained that he had been picked up from the tribunal premises, an incident that drew widespread public attention.
Following the fall of the Awami League government during the student-led mass uprising on August 5 last year, Bali filed a complaint with the prosecution office of the International Crimes Tribunal on August 21.
In the complaint, he alleged that he had been subjected to enforced disappearance and torture for refusing to testify against Sayeedi before later agreeing to testify in his favor.
The complaint named 32 people as accused, including former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, former chief justice Surendra Kumar Sinha and 10 to 15 unidentified individuals.
Others named in the complaint include former ICT chairman Justice Nizamul Huq Nasim, former law minister Shafique Ahmed, former state minister for law Kamrul Islam, former ICT judge Justice ATM Fazle Kabir, former investigation officer Helal Uddin and former Pirojpur-1 lawmaker AKM Awal.