Nagarik Oikya Convener Mahmudur Rahman Manna has been placed on a 10-day remand in a case filed on the charge of instigating the armed forces.
Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Mahbubur Rahman passed the order on Wednesday afternoon, after the IO of the case produced him before it with a 10-day remand plea. The court also rejected his bail plea.
Earlier in the day, a police van carrying the politician reached the court around 3pm.
He was picked up by members of RAB from the capital’s Dhanmondi area around 10:30pm Monday, hours after his leaked telephone conversations triggered massive controversy.
The elite force handed him over to Gulshan police station around Tuesday midnight, Gulshan circle Assistant Commissioner Nurul Amin told the Dhaka Tribune.
Manna was shown arrested in a case filed by SI Sohel Rana of Gulshan police on the charge of instigating the armed forces.
He was immediately handed over to Detective Branch of Police for interrogation.
Manna could not be traced for nearly 20 hours after law enforcers allegedly picked him up in the early hours of Tuesday.
The BNP, who, along with its partners, have been enforcing a countrywide transport blockade and intermittent hartals since January 6, demanded that Manna be returned to his family immediately.
On Monday, after the conversations were leaked, Manna expressed fears he might be arrested anytime. So he took refuge at a relative’s house and that is where he had been picked up from, alleged Manna’s wife Meher Nigar.
On the other hand, Monirul Islam, chief of Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s (DMP’s) DB police, told the Dhaka Tribune that they were still scrutinising the leaked conversations and trying to determine if they contained anything provocative or actionable.
Manna’s two telephone conversations were made available on the internet on Monday by a number of online news portals. One of them was with senior BNP leader and ex-Dhaka mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka – who is now in the US – and the other is with an unknown person.
Manna told Khoka that a few deaths in the police or criminal action would not matter if Dhaka University students could be involved with the movement to topple the government. He suggested that if the BNP could engineer the take-over of some DU residence halls in a confrontation, it would shake the government.
In the other conversation, he seems to have hinted he is ready to talk with army officers if they were to seek his opinion about remedying the prevailing political crisis.
The unknown person offered Manna to arrange meetings between Manna and 12 out of 19 “running officers” with whom the caller had been in touch. Manna agreed. When the caller said he would give the phone numbers of those officers, Manna said he was afraid to talk over the phone but later agreed to use Viber when suggested.
On Monday, Manna in a Facebook status update admitted he had had these conversations but claimed he had been misinterpreted. Several ruling Awami League leaders – of which he is a former organising secretary – demanded his arrest on sedition charges.
Source: Dhaka Tribune
