BNP leader Aslam Chowdhury being taken to a court in Dhaka
The next day, they were seen together at the Delhi Gate.
“That evening, Aslam and Safadi met with the filmstar at her residence as well,” Nazmul said.
Refusing to divulge details, the DC would only say that the actress' first name was Sangeeta and that a team of investigators who had gone to Mumbai in search of the actress, could not reach her.
“Safadi and Aslam had their top secret meeting at a basement-level room at the Taj Resort in Agra on March 9, 2016,” Nazmul said.
Though there were no witnesses to that meeting, Aslam confessed to police that Safadi had agreed to mastermind a plan to force Awami League into an early election.
Hotel authorities told police the underground conference room has now been converted into a souvenir shop.
DC Nazmul said police were preparing to press charges against Aslam in the sedition case.
Around the time of his visit, several photographs appeared on the Facebook page of Mendi N Safadi Center – now inactive – showing him and Safadi standing together and attending an event in India.
After Aslam's arrest on May 15 last year in Dhaka, Mendi N Safadi, told BBC he had met Aslam in New Delhi, but said the two had never had any secret discussions nor had they hatched any conspiracy against Bangladesh.
Aslam Chowdhury suddenly rose through the ranks, jumping from the convener of the Chittagong (North) district unit of BNP to central joint secretary general a few days before his arrest.
He was accused in 21 cases in Chittagong. Police describe him as the mastermind of frequent sabotage incidents on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway between 2013 and 2015. He also was in jail for eight months in these cases.
In 2014, Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, the editor of Weekly Blitz, was sentenced to seven years in prison for trying to travel to Israel because Bangladesh has no diplomatic relations with the country. He was going to speak at a conference there on the rise of Islamic militancy in Bangladesh, according to AFP.BNP Joint Secretary General Aslam Chowdhury confessed to paying an Israeli politician to help oust the government under instructions from Tarique Rahman, the party's senior vice chairman.
This was confirmed by police whose description of Aslam's meeting in India with Israel’s Likud Party leader Mendi N Safadi sounds like lines out of a spy novel.
“Aslam confessed to police that BNP rewarded him by making him joint secretary general for his international lobbying,” Dhaka Metropolitan Police Detective Branch’s Deputy Commissioner (North Zone) Sheikh Nazmul Hasan told the Dhaka Tribune.
“He also confessed that he was operating under instructions from Tarique Rahman. Before the arrest he was planning to go to London to meet Tarique and from there to USA to meet Safadi again.”
Aslam, who is in jail for a sedition case, and Safadi, the head of Mendi N Safadi Center for International Diplomacy and Public Relations, met at least four times in New Delhi and Agra between March 5 and 10 last year.
The senior BNP leader from Chittagong had been accompanied by a well-known Bollywood film actress during his entire trip.
With help from police authorities in Agra, Delhi and Mumbai, the DB's lengthy cross-border investigation revealed that Aslam had agreed to pay Safadi $20,000 or about Tk16 lakh per month to map out a plan to force the ruling party to agree to a snap election.
In the hopes of covering his tracks, Aslam used an intermediary to make a month’s payment to Safadi, Nazmul said.
Though the Bangladesh government had previously linked Safadi with the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, Nazmul said they could not find evidence to support that statement.
Aslam stayed at The Royal Plaza hotel in New Delhi during his tour.
The two had their first known meeting on March 6 at the Constitution Club of India, a popular haunt for Delhi's power brokers.
BNP leader Aslam Chowdhury being taken to a court in Dhaka
The next day, they were seen together at the Delhi Gate.
“That evening, Aslam and Safadi met with the filmstar at her residence as well,” Nazmul said.
Refusing to divulge details, the DC would only say that the actress' first name was Sangeeta and that a team of investigators who had gone to Mumbai in search of the actress, could not reach her.
“Safadi and Aslam had their top secret meeting at a basement-level room at the Taj Resort in Agra on March 9, 2016,” Nazmul said.
Though there were no witnesses to that meeting, Aslam confessed to police that Safadi had agreed to mastermind a plan to force Awami League into an early election.
Hotel authorities told police the underground conference room has now been converted into a souvenir shop.
DC Nazmul said police were preparing to press charges against Aslam in the sedition case.
Around the time of his visit, several photographs appeared on the Facebook page of Mendi N Safadi Center – now inactive – showing him and Safadi standing together and attending an event in India.
After Aslam's arrest on May 15 last year in Dhaka, Mendi N Safadi, told BBC he had met Aslam in New Delhi, but said the two had never had any secret discussions nor had they hatched any conspiracy against Bangladesh.
Aslam Chowdhury suddenly rose through the ranks, jumping from the convener of the Chittagong (North) district unit of BNP to central joint secretary general a few days before his arrest.
He was accused in 21 cases in Chittagong. Police describe him as the mastermind of frequent sabotage incidents on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway between 2013 and 2015. He also was in jail for eight months in these cases.
In 2014, Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, the editor of Weekly Blitz, was sentenced to seven years in prison for trying to travel to Israel because Bangladesh has no diplomatic relations with the country. He was going to speak at a conference there on the rise of Islamic militancy in Bangladesh, according to AFP.
BNP leader Aslam Chowdhury being taken to a court in Dhaka
The next day, they were seen together at the Delhi Gate.
“That evening, Aslam and Safadi met with the filmstar at her residence as well,” Nazmul said.
Refusing to divulge details, the DC would only say that the actress' first name was Sangeeta and that a team of investigators who had gone to Mumbai in search of the actress, could not reach her.
“Safadi and Aslam had their top secret meeting at a basement-level room at the Taj Resort in Agra on March 9, 2016,” Nazmul said.
Though there were no witnesses to that meeting, Aslam confessed to police that Safadi had agreed to mastermind a plan to force Awami League into an early election.
Hotel authorities told police the underground conference room has now been converted into a souvenir shop.
DC Nazmul said police were preparing to press charges against Aslam in the sedition case.
Around the time of his visit, several photographs appeared on the Facebook page of Mendi N Safadi Center – now inactive – showing him and Safadi standing together and attending an event in India.
After Aslam's arrest on May 15 last year in Dhaka, Mendi N Safadi, told BBC he had met Aslam in New Delhi, but said the two had never had any secret discussions nor had they hatched any conspiracy against Bangladesh.
Aslam Chowdhury suddenly rose through the ranks, jumping from the convener of the Chittagong (North) district unit of BNP to central joint secretary general a few days before his arrest.
He was accused in 21 cases in Chittagong. Police describe him as the mastermind of frequent sabotage incidents on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway between 2013 and 2015. He also was in jail for eight months in these cases.
In 2014, Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, the editor of Weekly Blitz, was sentenced to seven years in prison for trying to travel to Israel because Bangladesh has no diplomatic relations with the country. He was going to speak at a conference there on the rise of Islamic militancy in Bangladesh, according to AFP.