A Dhaka court yesterday placed BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia’s advisor and journalist leader Shawkat Mahmud on fresh four-day remand, rejecting his bail petitions in four cases of violence.
Metropolitan Magistrate Shahriar Mahmud Adnan passed the order after police produced him before the court seeking 40-day remand for questioning in the four cases.
The court granted one-day remand to Shawkat in each of the four cases – one filed with Motijheel and three with Paltan police station – on charges of violence in the capital.
In the remand pleas, the investigators mentioned that Shawkat was shown arrested in the cases for instigating arson attacks. They added that they need him to be remanded for fair probes and also to discover the whereabouts of the fugitives who were involved with the incident in the cases.
Opposing the remand pleas, defence counsel Md Sanaullah Miah filed petitions seeking Shawkat’s bail and cancellation of the remand prayer, saying that his name was not mentioned in the FIR of the four cases and he was implicated in the case as part of a conspiracy to harass him politically.
Earlier on Sunday, investigators of eight cases of violence filed a total of 80-day remand petitions after showing the journalist leader as arrested in eight new cases, including the four abovementioned cases.
Although the court granted four-day remand in these four cases, a hearing on the other four cases was not held on that day.
According to case documents, one of these four cases was filed with Motijheel police station on January 25, while the remaining three were filed with Paltan police station on February 2 and 3.
The cases were filed on the charges of vandalism, arson of vehicles and blasting cocktails in Motijheel and Paltan during the BNP-led alliance blockade.
Detectives arrested Shawkat Mahmud, also Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists (BFUJ) president, in front of Samarai Convention Centre in the capital’s Panthapath on August 18.
He had gone to the convention centre to take part in a press conference of Adarsha Dhaka Andolan, an electoral platform of pro-BNP professionals.
A day after his arrest, he was placed on 3-day remand in another violence case filed with Ramna police station on January 9.