A Dhaka court yesterday granted police four more days of remand to question 37 foreigners and five Bangladeshis accused of running an illegal VoIP business in a case filed with Uttara West police station last month.
Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Anwar Sadat passed the order when Md Kajemur Rashid of Rab 1, who is also the investigation officer (IO), produced the suspects before the court and requested seven days fresh remand for further interrogation in the case filed under a telecommunication act.
At the same time, defence counsel Md Sanaullah Miah filed a petition against the remand and sought bail for all the detained accused.
After hearing both sides, the court ordered four days remand for each of the accused and rejected their bail pleas.
According to the case statement, law enforcers detained 43 suspects, including eight women, with a large quantity of illegal VoIP (voice over internet protocol) equipment from a house in the capital’s Uttara area on December 22.
The detained foreigners include five Chinese and 32 Taiwanese nationals who do not have any permit to work in this country.
On December 24, another Dhaka court placed 42 of the detainees on two days’ police remand, while one Bangladeshi suspect was granted bail.
In his petition yesterday, the IO mentioned further remand was needed as three Taiwanese police officials were now in Dhaka to jointly interrogate the foreigners over the illegal business providing phone services over the internet.
The Taiwanese officers, who arrived in the city on January 17, were named as Huang Wen Chin, Lin Chun Hsien and Huang Chun Chein.
On December 23, Abu Reza Mustafa Kamal of Rab 1 filed a case against 45 suspects under section 35(2) of the Bangladesh Telecommunication Act 2001 (amended 2006). Two of the accused, Faruk Hossein and Latifunnessa Shamsuddin, are on the run.
According to the telecommunication act, anyone operating any telecom equipment without a licence faces a maximum of 10 years in jail or a fine up to Tk300 crore, or both.