Dhaka: A court here today ordered the interrogation of a Bangladesh-origin US citizen in police custody for his alleged attempt to overthrow the interim government. Police and court officials said Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Atiqur Rahman granted the two-day remand for Enayet Karim Chowdhury against a police petition seeking him to be in their custody for 10 days for interrogation in a case under the Anti-Terrorism Act.
According to Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha, police detained Chowdhury on Saturday when he was seen moving suspiciously in a posh car at Mantripara area on Mintoo Road, the residential hub of the interim government’s advisers. They produced him before another metropolitan magistrate, Dilruba Afroz Tithi, the next day on the basis of a general diary (GD), when she sent him to jail.
Police, meanwhile, filed the case under the terrorism law and produced Chowdhury before Rahman’s court today, securing the two-day period for his interrogation. Chowdhury’s lawyer applied for his bail, ignoring the police prayer, but the magistrate rejected his plea.
Police said Chowdhury arrived in Dhaka on September 6 from New York by a Qatar Airways flight and alleged that he came to Bangladesh to work to form a new government or caretaker government, dislodging the existing interim one. According to police, their preliminary interrogation of Chowdhury revealed that he had already held ‘secret meetings’ with several high-ranking or policy-making government officials and influential political business leaders.
Police stated that Chowdhury told their interrogators that the Supreme Court’s Appellate Division would reestablish the caretaker government system, overturning a previous apex court verdict on October 21. Following this, it was claimed that an army-supported new national government or caretaker government would be formed.