Shawkat Mahmud sent to jail after remand

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia's adviser Shawkat Mahmud. Star file photo

A Dhaka court today sent BNP chairperson's adviser Shawkat Mahmud to jail after completion of his three-day remand in a case filed for the death of a man in an arson attack in January.

Metropolitan Magistrate Waezkuruni Khan Chowdhury passed the order after the Detective Branch (DB) of police produced Shawkat, also president of a faction of Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists, before the court.

DB Sub-Inspector Shafikul Islam, also the investigation officer of the case, told the court that he gathered important information from Shawkat Mahmud, which was being verified now.

“So, I appealed to court to confine Shawkat in jail until the investigation of the case concludes,” the police official told reporters.

On August 19, another court in Dhaka placed Shawkat Mahmud on a three-day remand in the case, a day after he was picked up from the city's Panthapath area.

Law enforcers detained him when he went to a convention centre to attend a press briefing of Adarsha Dhaka Andolan, a pro-BNP professionals' platform.

On the night of January 9, when the opposition was enforcing a countrywide blockade, arsonists stopped a private car near Moghbazar in the capital and set it on fire with petrol. Driver Abdul Kalam, who was inside, sustained severe burn injuries then. He died at Dhaka Medical College Hospital on January 15, said police.

The next day, Ramna police filed a case against 13 over the incident.

According to the plaintiff, Kalam was killed by a group of BNP-led 20-party alliance men.

Shawkat's name was not in the first information report. Police showed him arrested in the case while filing the remand prayer on August 19.