Police have filed a plea with a Dhaka court for the release of most wanted Indian criminal Abdur Rauf alias Dawood Merchant, convicted in India for killing Bollywood music baron Gulshan Kumar, sources said.
According to sources, Dawood Merchant was one of the several Indian nationals currently held in Bangladesh’s jails whose extradition was discussed during a recent top level meeting with India.
Court sources said the release plea was submitted to Sub-Inspector (SI) Anisur Rahman of the non-general recording office (GRO) of the court of Dhaka’s Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) on December 9 last year.
Dawood Merchant was arrested in Brahmanbaria in November 2009 for illegal tresspassing and possessing a fake Bangladeshi passport. He was then kept at the Kashimpur jail in Gazipur.
In November 2014, he got released on bail and was arrested again four days later in Dhaka under section 54 of the penal code which gives police the right to arrest anyone on suspicion. Since then he has been at the Dhaka Central Jail.
On November 11 last year, Anup Chetia, leader of the Indian separatist group Ulfa, was handed over to Indian authorities. Later India returned Nur Hossain, the prime suspect in the Narayanganj seven-murder case.
Since 2013, the Indian government has been pressing Bangladesh to fast-track the extradition of Dawood Merchant, a close associate of notorious Mumbai-based mafia don Dawood Ibrahim.