‘Plot to kill Joy’: Mahmudur placed on 5-day remand

A Dhaka court today placed Mahmudur Rahman, editor of Amar Desh newspaper, on a five-day remand for interrogation in connection with an alleged plot “to kidnap and kill Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s son Sajeeb Wazed Joy”.

The decision came when the detectives produced Rahman before the court with a 10-day remand prayer.

The court of Metropolitan Magistrate Md Golam Nabi directed assistant commissioner of Detective Branch of police Hasan Mahmud, who is the investigation officer of the case, to follow the directives of High Court Division during the interrogation.

READ MORE: Mahmudur to be shown arrested

Earlier in the morning, the Amar Desh editor was shown arrested in the case.

A pro-BNP journalist and a former energy adviser, Rahman has been behind bars since April 2013.

On April 18, detectives filed plea to show Mahmudur arrested in the case.

In the same case, senior journalist and a pro-BNP intellectual Shafik Rehman was arrested and placed on a five-day remand. He was arrested from his house in Eskaton area of the capital on April 16.

ALSO READ: Police claim journalist Shafik Rehman named three others

Police have also claimed that Shafik Rehman admitted meeting four people, including three convicted by a US court over bribing an FBI special agent to collect confidential information. The three are US-Bangladesh citizen Rizve Ahmed Caesar, former FBI special agent Robert Lustyik and his "contact" Johannes Thaler.

THE CASE

The case was filed by DB Inspector Fazlur Rahman with Paltan Police Station in August last year.

According to the case statement, Caesar's father Mohammad Ullah Mamun, vice-president of BNP's cultural wing Jasas, and some top leaders of the BNP and its allies met in the UK, the US and various places of Bangladesh before September 2012 and conspired to abduct and kill the PM's son.

In March last year, Caesar was convicted by a US court for bribing an FBI special agent to collect information regarding a Bangladeshi political figure.

The US Justice Department did not name the figure, but it is believed to be Joy.

In a Facebook post on March 9 last year, Joy, also ICT affairs adviser to the prime minister, accused BNP leaders of conspiring to abduct and kill him.