I’m being denied justice

Model Meghna Alam yesterday told a Dhaka court that she was sent to jail without trial.

She made the remarks after the court allowed her to defend herself during a hearing in connection with an extortion case filed with Dhanmondi Model Police Station against her.

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Masum Mia yesterday showed her arrested in the case after the Detective Branch (DB) of police appealed, said a court staffer.

During the hearing, no lawyer was present at the courtroom to defend Meghna.

Meghna said, "I was sent to jail without trial. I was told that I wouldn't be allowed to have a lawyer. The issue is, my relationship is only with the ambassador Issa [Issa bin Youssef Al-Duhailan, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Bangladesh], no one else …"

Denying the allegations brought against her, the Miss Bangladesh Foundation chairperson said she was falsely implicated in the case. She claimed that she did not know Dewan Samir, a businessman, who is also accused in the case. Ambassador Issa contacted her, she said.

Meghna also appealed to the court to reject the application filed for showing her arrested.

Omar Faruq Faruqi, public prosecutor of Dhaka Metropolitan, told The Daily Star that Meghna informed the court that the Saudi envoy made marriage proposal to her. She added that she never initiated contact with the diplomat, but he frequently called and texted her.

While being taken back to the lockup of the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court after hearing, the model also said she was being deprived of justice.

"I only had relationships with Issa -- no one else. I'm not getting justice," she said when a journalist asked her about the matter.

But police officers stopped her from speaking further.

In his application, investigator Md Akhtar Morshed, a DB inspector, said, "Meghna Alam, her close associate Dewan Samir, and two to three others were involved in luring foreign envoys into affairs with attractive girls."

The accused conspired to extort $5 million from a diplomat. Meghna needed to be shown arrested in the case for the sake of a fair probe, said the investigator.

Meanwhile, the court yesterday placed Samir on a five-day remand in the extortion case after he was produced before it with a seven-day remand prayer.

On April 15, Mohammad Abdul Alim, an inspector of Dhanmondi Police Station, lodged the case against Meghna, Samir, and two to three unknown others.

According to the case statement, Meghna and Samir, along with two to three unidentified others, are allegedly active members of an "organised fraud ring".

They reportedly used "attractive" women to lure foreign diplomats and representatives of foreign missions in Bangladesh, as well as local businessmen, into romantic and illicit relationships, and then applied various tactics to extort money by threatening to tarnish their reputation, the case statement said.

Samir is the CEO of a business organisation named KAWAII Group and owner of a manpower firm named Sanjana International. He also previously owned a company called MIRI International Event Management Ltd.

As part of a scheme to gain access to foreign diplomats and businessmen, Samir allegedly appointed attractive and smart women as brand ambassadors, including Meghna, in his companies to use them to blackmail envoys and extract large sums of money, the case statement said.

Samir, Meghna, and others also reportedly held a meeting on March 29 at a Japanese restaurant in Dhanmondi to demand $5 million from the diplomat, the statement said.

Meghna, the winner of Miss Earth Bangladesh 2020, was picked up from her flat in Bashundhara Residential Area in the capital on April 9.

The next day, a Dhaka court ordered Meghna to be kept in jail for 30 days under the Special Powers Act, 1974, following an application submitted by the detectives.

The High Court on April 13 issued a rule asking the government authorities concerned to explain in two weeks why Meghna's arrest under the Special Powers Act should not be declared illegal.