Contempt of court: The curious case of the chasm between India and Bangladesh

This is the second in an occasional series (the first was in the sister blog dealing with the war crimes trials) pointing to the chasm between the practice of Indian and Bangladesh courts towards critical commentary, and in particular the circumstances when criticism will result in criminal proceedings for 'contempt of court' (through what is known as 'scandalization of the court', distinguishable from other categories of contempt of court which this post is not referring to.*)

The courts in Bangladesh have said that 'fair criticism' is permitted, but have at the same time often taken an approach which narrowly construes what it considers to fall into this category.

As a result, it is difficult for journalists in Bangladesh to write commentary on the judiciary in Bangladesh without seriously risking contempt proceedings being issued against them (and their editors/publishers). This is particularly the case when third parties - usually lawyers - are ever so eager to bring any critical commentary to the attention of the courts, which is the case here.

This situation is however very different from that in India, where critical commentary - some of it very critical indeed - seems very much to be permitted, and does not create a risk of contempt proceedings. The situation in India seems to be getting closer to the one in England where the offense of contempt by 'scandalizing the court' has been repealed.

Today, for example, The Wire had published a pretty excoriating piece about the Indian Supreme court (equivalent to Bangladesh's appellate division) which should simply not be able to be published here, even in a toned down version.

RAB and the British blogger-killer arrest

The FIR lodged with
the police three months
ago

On Tuesday, Bangladesh's supposedly elite counter-terrorist organization, the  Rapid Action Battalion organized a press conference to announce the arrest of three men, one of whom was a British citizen. At the press conference they claimed that the three had been arrested late the previous night or early that morning, and had confessed to membership of the militant organization, Ansarullah Bangla Team and to the killing of two of the four bloggers killed this year in Bangladesh.

The story the police gave about the arrest was quite detailed. One of the men was arrested on Monday evening, and he gave information that led onto the arrest of the other two men, including the British citizen Towhidul Rahman, outside Star Kebab in Dhanmondi, Dhaka.

It has now come to light that the police story about his detention on early Tuesday morning is not likely to be true.

As reported in Al Jazeera, the security guard and the caretaker of the building in which Tawhidul Rahman lived confirm that he was picked up on 28 May 2015, three months earlier, by people who introduced themselves as people from the 'administration/detective branch'. Moreover, later that day, the sister filed a 'general diary' (known here as a GD, and is the means by which the public provide the police with information about a crime or possible crime)with the police station informing them of her brother's 'arrest' by 'DB officers', and five days later filed a First Information Report - known here as an FIR, which is the way in which a criminal case starts) with similar information.

Modi's visit and the BNP leader detained in India

It can't be very pleasant for the country's main opposition party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, to see  prime minister Sheikh Hasina get so much acclaim and kudos during the visit of the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi - but there is one very good reason why the party can be thankful for the prime minister's visit to Bangladesh at this particular time.

And that is the decision two days ago of the Shillong District and Sessions Judge’s Court court to grant bail to Salah Uddin Ahmed.

Salah Uddin is, as you will remember, the BNP leader who was allegedly picked up by law enforcement agents on 10 March from a flat in Uttara and who was then two months later, according to him, dumped in the Indian hill town of Shillong.

It has been difficult from Dhaka to follow the ins-and-outs of exactly what has been going on in Shillong over the last month, but my understanding is that the reason why bail was not agreed by the court the previous week was because the police/prosecutor and the defense could not agree the conditions for bail.

At that time, the police/prosecutor apparently would only agree to bail as long as Salah Uddin stayed at a particular appointed place, and reported daily to the police. Salah Uddin's defense lawyers wanted far more liberal conditions so that they could take him anywhere in Shillong, and reporting to the authorities only on a weekly basis.

Two days ago, the defense got their own way, and this must surely be linked to the impending trip of Modi to Bangladesh, a few days later.

Modi's people would not, I would conjecture, have wanted Salah Uddin to still be in detention when he came to Bangladesh. Apart from anything else this would have colored his meeting with Khaleda Zia who would one assume have brought the matter up. With the Indian authorities and court dealing with Salah Uddin in an apparently liberal matter, the BNP can only be happy with how India has treated the BNP leader.

Modi's visit could not have been better timed for Salah Uddin .. and the BNP

A crib sheet for the Indian prime minister

India's new prime minister

Updated

Warning. This page includes political satire! Do not read on if you are easily offended by politicians you support being satirised! 

With the Indian prime minister Narendra Modi arriving in Bangladesh in a few days time, I thought it might be useful to provide him a crib sheet which will help him understand what Awami League ministers, and the party's civil society supporters, really mean when they talk about 'democracy', the 'BNP', and  'elections' and also to assist him in comprehending any conversation he may have with BNP leaders.

Please suggest definitions of new word (or indeed better ones for those below) in particular for BNP vocabulary in the comment 
section or by e-mailing, bangladeshpolitico@gmail.com

For the Awami League meetings

Anti-corruption commission - an organization that proves that it is the opposition party leaders who steel money from government coffers.

Anti-Liberation force - a person or group who does not unconditionally support the present government (see 'Razaker')

An Ally (of Bangladesh) - a country that never criticizes or comments negatively on Bangladesh (and preferably gives it lots of money) (see 'Hostile country') 

Bangladesh Nationalist Party - a terrorist organization which has no right to take part in the country's politics and all of whose leaders should be in jail.

Election commission slammed in UK government report

The European Union, UK's Department for International Development, USAID and UNDP have since 2011 financed a UNDP-managed project supporting the Election Commission in Bangladesh.

EU, by far the biggest funder, has provided   $8.8 million
UK's DfID has provided                                $2.4 million
UNDP has provided                                      $2 million
USAID has provided                                     $1.4 million

This is a total of $14.6 million, of which $11.4 million has been spent. A similar project took place involving the previous 5 year period

Since 2011, there has been three sets of key elections: the national elections in January 2014, the upazilla elections in March of that year (that were held in four rounds), and most recently the City Corporation elections in April 2015.

In September 2014, DfID undertook an annual assessment of the money spent on this project (written before the recent City Corporation elections) and it is damning. The much more diplomatic UNDP mid-term review is also critical in parts.

So Salah Uddin made his own way to India?

The round the clock service that RAB offers

See: Salah Uddin in India - the 3 things to know
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Those desperate to spin the story that Bangladesh law enforcers were not responsible for the pick up of Salah Uddin Ahmed from a flat in Uttara on 10 March 2015 - presumably suggesting that he or the BNP manufactured his own disappearance - have become so desperate that they now have to rely on quotes supposedly given by a singular uncorroborated anonymous intelligence officer to support their claim.

It is perhaps not surprising that the Bangla Tribune - the Awami League's friendly and cuddly bangla language news portal - started it off. It is however rather more surprising (and disappointing) that the Dhaka Tribune, its sister English language publication with its far more professional ethos, decided to do a bit of an encore.

Sometime yesterday, the Bangla Tribune, put up a story titled 'Salahuddin dosen’t know how he crossed the border' based around an interview with an anonymous senior intelligence officer.

Salah Uddin went to india in the third week of April by crossing the border. After several attempts he was able to cross the broder and went to india’s Meghalaya through Sylhet’s Jokiganj, said investigators. …. 

A senior official of a intelligence agency told Bangla Tribune, that Salah Uddin disappeared from Dhaka's Uttara on March 10. Then he tried to cross the border from different areas of country but because of strict monitoring of the border he failed to do that. Later in third week of April he managed to enter Meghalaya through Sylhet’s Jokiganj with the help of an agent. The official also said, Salahuddin was planning to go to Nepal. He was preparing for the trip during his stay in Meghalaya but because of the of April 25 earthquake in Nepal he scrapped the plan. In the meantime, he also become little sick.

Does anyone with a modicum of common sense or objectivity imagine that senior officials of a Bangladesh government intelligence agency - yet alone, as we have here, a single anonymised uncorroborated intelligence officer - have a single iota of credibility when they provides information very supportive of the government's line that law enforcement bodies were not involved in Salah Uddin's disappearance - when in fact this is a story where the evidence strongly supports the view that law enforcement agencies were directly involved in the BNP leader's abduction  and where there is not a single piece of evidence to support the contrary contention that he conspired his own disappearance?

I understand that the Bangla Tribune and many others want to believe that Salah Uddin's disappearance is some kind of BNP conspiracy - but it is sad that they can only do this through the obviously fictitious words of an intelligence officer. 

What this article fails to mention - because, of course, to include it would make the basis of the intelligence officer's claim even more absurd - is anything about what is known about Salah Uddin's disappearance.

Let us just remind ourselves about what is known - and what the Bangla Tribune and all the other pro-government media outlets leave out

1. In the early hours of 8 March, two days before Salah Uddin was disappeared, RAB raided the houses of three employees of the BNP leader - two of his drivers and his personal assistant - and detained them for two days. Apart from the testimony of family members and independent witnesses, we know that RAB was involved in these picks up, as it is mentioned in a police document given to court. 

2. On the same morning, acco, rding to independent eye-witnesses, in their search for Salah UddinRAB raided residential flats in a building in Road 136 of  Gulsan-1 presumably on the basis of information provided by the picked up employees. The RAB officers specifically went to a first floor flat where Salah Uddin had been staying until a few days earlier, and searched the flat. They found no-one there except a 70 year old cook who was also picked up. 

3. This flat was owned by a director of First Security Islami Bank, Shahidul Islam, who is also the brother of the chairman of the bank, Md Saiful Alam.

 4. The bank is significant as the building where the headquarters is located (just across the road from road 136) is owned by Salah Uddin and on same morning RAB raided the bank's headquarters searching for Salah Uddin thinking that he may be hiding in the 6th floor board room. He was not present there.  

5. RAB came back to the bank later that morning and took its CCTV footage away - though it is unclear whether they were looking for evidence of Salah Uddin's presence in the bank or whether they just wanted to remove evidence of the raid of the bank. 

6. At the time, Salah Uddin was living in a flat in Uttara which belonged to Habib Hasnat, a deputy managing director of First Security Islami bank. So he had moved from a flat owned by a director of First Secuirty Islami bank (which RAB had raided) to the deputy managing director of the bank.

7. On the evening of 10 March, men came to the flat where Salah Uddin was living. According to the multiple interviews which the caretaker of the buildings gave to different newspaper and others - which have been recorded both on video and audit - he said that men who introduced themselves as detective branch officers took Salah Uddin away, blindfolded from the building. 

8. Local residents and guards also confirm that law enforcement officials and vehicles were present on the road that night. 

9. Security officers of the local Welfare Trust confirm that RAB officers asked them on the night of 10 March where was road 13/b - which was the road where Salah Uddin was picked up from

10. Habib Hasnat (DMD, First Security) Shahidul Islam (Director, First Security), Md Saiful Alam (chairman, First Security) all leave the country immediately after Salah Uddin was taken.

Go here for all the links 

The article - and indeed all Bangla Tribune coverage of the Salah Uddin disappearance - also fails to mention that his pick-up is far from an isolated incident. Most recently just before the 5 January 2014 elections, 19 BNP activists were picked up in Dhaka over the course of a two week period, in eight separate incidents with eye-witness testimony in all these cases pointing clearly to the involvement of the law enforcement authorities, in particular RAB and the DB.

And also, of course, the article significantly fails to mention that another disappeared person, Sukharanjan Bali, was also found (as I have mentioned in an earlier posting) in very similar circumstances to those now apparently experience by Salah Uddin - and that he gave a statement that law enforcement authorities first detained him for 6 weeks and then drove him to the Indian border. Sound familiar?

So enough of all this. It is fine for the Bangla Tribune to have a particular ideological bent. It is not fine for it, and other pro-government papers and websites, to distort and lie about RAB's desperate searches for Salah Uddin, their circling of First Security Islami Bank and its directors, what eyewitnesses said about the evening of his disappearance - and instead to quote from sources that have no credibility at all.

As to the Dhaka Tribune. Well, it used the same quote from the intelligence officer in its main article in this morning paper as though it was a respectable piece of information. (Interestingly, in the Bangla Tribune article the quote was given to the Bangla Tribune, but in the Dhaka Tribune article, the same exact quote was given to the Dhaka Tribune. It would be nice to know which is right?)

Salah Uddin Ahmed in India - the three things to know

See also: So Salah Uddin made his own way to India, did he?
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Salah Uddin Ahmed, a joint general secretary of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, who has been missing since he was allegedly picked up by law enforcement agencies on 10 March, just over two months ago, has been located in the Institute of Mental Health & Neurosciences Hospital in Shillong in the Indian state of Meghalaya.

His wife told me that she received a call from the hospital this morning, and spoke to her husband. She says that he told her that  'I am alive', that she should meet Khaleda Zia and and that she should tell the media what has happened.

According to media reports, the Police in Meghalaya say they arrested Salah Uddin Ahmed from Golf Links in capital Shillong late on Monday, that he was hospitalised and that it appeared to be a case of illegal trespass into Indian territory without valid travel documents.

So what do we make of this? Here are three initials things to know.

First of all this is very similar to what happened to Sukhranjan Bali.

Bali was a witness at the International Crimes Tribunal who was picked up on 5 February 2012, from outside the International Crimes Tribunal on the morning he hoped to give evidence on behalf of Delwar Hossain Sayedee. His defense lawyers claimed at the time that law enforcement officials who introduced themselves as from the detective branch took him.

Seven months later, New Age revealed that he was detained in an Indian jail. In a statement he gave from the jail which was reported in the paper, he said that he was picked up and kept for six weeks in a place that he thought was a detective branch office when he was then driven to the border of India and pushed over from where he was arrested for illegal entry. The article reads:

Bali's statement goes on to state that having been kept by Bangladesh law enforcing agencies for about six weeks, on December 23, 2012 he was blindfolded and taken by the Bangladesh police to the border and handed him over to India's Border Security Force.
"They stopped the car in Magura at a hotel to provide me with food. They removed the blindfold and I found out that I was brought there in a private car. After I finished my meal, I was again blindfolded and we were driving again and they finally handed me over to the BSF about 5:00pm and then they left," he says in his statement.
Bali says that he was harshly treated by the Border Security Force.

It seems that that the law enforcement authorities have used a similar modus operandi in this case.

Secondly, I doubt that we will know the truth about what happened to Salah Uddin whilst the Awami League is in power.

Though there can be no doubt that on 10 March Salah Uddin was taken by anyone other than the law enforcement authorities, pieces of the jigsaw remain missing - and it seems unlikely that Salah Uddin himself will will speak publicly. His wife said today that all she is concerned is that he is alive, and I am sure that there is an implicit/explicit deal that Salah Uddin has been allowed to live as long as he does not speak publicly about what happened to him. Moreover, of course, he may well find himself holed up in an Indian jail for sometime (on charges of illegal entry), with the prospect if he is sent back to Bangladesh he will be arrested on various cases against him.

And thirdly, this is how government's get away time and again with these kinds of abduction. Fear. Along of course with supine human rights organizations, a quiescent civil society and a silent and compromised international community.

Bank raid suggests law enforcers involved in disappearance

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Go here to see INDEX of posts on Salah Uddin disappearance

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This is a further article about the disappearance of Salah Uddin, the BNP leader allegedly picked up by law enforcement authorities on 10 March 2015, whose whereabouts remain unknown. It deals with the implications of a raid on a bank by the Rapid Action Battalion, two days before the disappearance. It was published in New Age on 6 May 2015

Bank raid suggests law enforcers involved 

May 6, 2015 

David Bergman and Muktadir Rashid 

An early morning raid by Rapid Action Battalion on 8 March 2015 on the Gulshan headquarters of the First Security Islami Bank further suggests that law enforcement authorities were involved in picking up opposition leader Salah Uddin Ahmed two days later, New Age can reveal.
Investigation by the paper has found that the bank provides a crucial link between a sequence of raids and arrests by RAB that finally resulted in the BNP politician being picked up, just over 48 hours later on 10 March, from a flat in Uttara where one of the bank’s deputy managing directors lived.

Eight takeaways from the Mayor elections

Courtesy of the Daily Star: Vote rigging in plain sight

Here are eight key take-aways from yesterday's Mayor election.

1. Now we know what the Prime Minister means by 'free and fair elections'.

In January 2014, the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina promised there would be 'free and fair' national elections, even without a caretaker government. The BNP and opposition parties boycotted it, arguing that there could be no such election under a political government  In 2015, she promised the same in the city mayor elections. This time the BNP did not boycott. Now I suppose we know what would have happened had the BNP taken part in the 2014 elections and is likely to  happen in the 2019  national elections: widespread ballot box stuffing along with police and election commission complicity (see here for just one such example). Despite all the evidence, this morning the prime minister has stated: 'The city corporations elections were conducted in a free, fair and peaceful manner. The police administration has discharged their duties responsibly.” Were these elections a dress rehearsal of what will happen in 2019 national elections?

2. Winning is the only important thing.

For the Awami League right now (and no doubt it would be the same were the BNP in power), winning power is the only thing that matters. The Awami League could have taken a different view, allowing the election to be free and fair, and letting the most popular candidate win. Were the Awami League to have done this and lost, then they could have argued, 'Look we are capable of holding free and fair elections. The BNP should have no worries for the future.' But no, it does not matter to the government right now how they win, as long as they do win.

index of material on Salah Uddin 'disappearance'

Hasina Ahmed, wife of Salah Uddin

Below is an index of the material contained on this blog about the disappearance of Salah Uddin.

It is divided into two parts. First the journalism on the evidence about what happened to the BNP leader.

Secondly, the material on the Habeas corpus writ filed by his wife.



Key journalism on abduction by law enforcers

1. Summary of the evidence **** (read this article first)

2. Interview with caretaker of building where Salah Uddin picked up (New Age) 

3. Interview with caretaker of building where Salah Uddin picked up (Prothom Alo, translation) 

4. Interviews with security officers and residents in area where Salah Uddin picked up (New Age) 

5. Article on how three employees of Salah Uddin were arrested by RAB on 8 March, three days before Salah Uddin was picked up, and how on the same day, the flat where Salah Uddin had earlier been staying was raided and the cook was arrested. 

6. Article on the raid on First Security Islami Bank on 8 March, and how the bank provides crucial link between a sequence of raids and arrests by RAB that finally resulted in the BNP politician being picked up, just over 48 hours later on 10 March, from a flat in Uttara where one of the bank’s deputy managing directors lived. (New Age)

7. 'Two stories to help understanding Salah Uddin's Disappearance' (New Age op-ed)

      - ICT witness alleges state abduction (May 2013)

      - 19 BNP activists disappeared in Dhaka over 2 week period  (Dec 2014)

Habeas Corpus writ
This is a writ filed in the High Court by the family of Salah Uddin

1. Habeas Corpus application for recovery of Salah Uddin and order of the court 

2. Supplementary application from Salah Uddin's wife  

3. Response from Government and law enforcement bodies

4. Annex to government response: Uttara police station's "General Diaries" 

5. Further annexes to government response: Correspondence of law enforcing authorities

6. Response of Salah Uddin's wife to government 

7. Further application by Salah Uddin's wife seeking judicial inquiry body

Salah Uddin disappearance: Summary of the evidence

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Go here to see INDEX of posts on Salah Uddin pick-up

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     This has been updated to include material  published on
     6 May 2015


The evidence supporting law enforcement authority involvement in Salah Uddin's disappearance on the evening of 10 March from a house in Uttara is as follows

1. A pattern of behavior

The government's law enforcement authorities have picked up and disappeared many other BNP leaders and activists in recent years - in particular 19 activists who were taken in a single two week period in Dhaka just before the January 2014 elections where substantial evidence exists that law enforcement authorizing, including Rapid Action Battalion and Detective Branch of the police. The whereabouts of these 19 remain unknown. There are many more such cases. Salah Uddin's disappearance is nothing new.

2. RAB was desperately searching for Salah Uddin in days before pick up

The law enforcement authorities were desperately looking for Salah Uddin in the few days before he was picked up on the night of 10 March 2015.

(a) Pick up of three of Salah Uddin's employee in the early hours of 8th March. Three days before Salah Uddin Ahmed was picked him, the BNP leader's two drivers (Khokon and Shafique) and his personal assistant Goni, were picked up from their houses. Family members and independent eye-witnesses confirm that the men were picked up on this date by law enforcement authorities. Court documents state that "RAB" arrested them.

These three men were kept in the law enforcement custody for over 48 hours before being brought before a magistrate's court. This is illegal as they should have been brought before a magistrate's court within 24 hours. When they were brought before the court, the prosecutor alleged that they were 'accomplices' of Salah Uddin and had 'harbored' him. They were remanded in further police custody for three days.

See here: RAB picked up three Salah Uddin employees and cook

RAB 'arrest' of Salah Uddin's three employees, and cook

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Go here to see INDEX of posts on Salah Uddin disappearance

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This is an article about the disappearance of Salah Uddin, the BNP leader allegedly picked up by law enforcement authorities on 10 March 2015, whose whereabouts are unknown. It deals with the pick up two days before Salah Uddin's disappearance of three of his employees and a cook. It was published in New Age on 4 April 2015

More about the evidence involving the alleged pick up, can be found in the index
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RAB picked up 3 employees and cook, 3 days before 

April 4, 2015 

David Bergman and Muktadir Rashid

In the early hours of March 8, three days before the Bangladesh Nationalist Party leader Salah Uddin Ahmed is alleged to have been picked up by law enforcement officers, his two drivers and personal assistant were detained by the paramilitary force, Rapid Action Battalion, New Age can confirm.
The three men were arrested from their homes in West Kalachadpur and Badda between 1 am and 3.30 am and held for over 48 hours before being taken to a magistrate’s court two days later where they were accused of ‘sheltering’ the BNP leader.
Investigation by New Age has also found that within an hour of the two drivers being taken from their homes, RAB officers raided a block of flats in Gulshan-1 trying to find Salah Uddin.
After searching the flats, the law enforcement officers took away a 65-year-old cook who had been living in one of the flats where the BNP joint secretary general had earlier been in hiding.
Two days after his detention, the cook was brought to Dhaka district’s magistrate court, along with Salah Uddin’s three employees, where he was also accused of ‘harbouring’ the BNP leader.

Two stories to help understand Salah Uddin's disappearance

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Go here to see INDEX of posts on Salah Uddin disappearance

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This is an oped published in the New Age about the Salah Uddin disappearance on 2 April 2015. The original article can be seen here

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Understanding Salah Uddin’s disappearance 

April 2, 2015 

by David Bergman 

Here are two stories that can help us understand what has happened to Salah Uddin Ahmed, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party leader who eye-witnesses claim was picked up by law enforcement authorities on March 10 (an allegation denied by the government) and what might be his fate.
The first story involves Sajedul Islam Sumon, 36, a BNP ward general secretary in Dhaka, his cousin and four activists of the BNP’s student wing.
At about 6:00pm, on November 4, 2013 they were standing outside an under-construction house on Road 4 of Block I of the Bashundara Residential Area, when, according to construction workers present at the site, all six of them were whisked away by officers from the Rapid Action Battalion.
‘One of the cars was a black pickup, the ones usually used by RAB,’ one worker said describing the vehicles in which the men were picked up. ‘Around four of [the men] were in plain clothes and the remaining seven or eight were dressed in the black uniform of RAB with black bandanas around their heads.’

Salah Uddin habeas writ - new application for establishment of judicial body

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This is a further application filed by the wife of Salah Uddin Ahmed,  ex-state Minister and Joint Secretary of BNP for 'direction to the opposite parties to form a high power judicial inquiry body headed by a retired Justice for finding out/produce the petitioner's husband Salah Uddin Ahmed before the court to be dealt with according to law'. The same eight respondents are named in this application as in the original habeas corpus one.

The content of the application is almost identical to that in the response to the counter affidavit, apart from the prayer seeking the judicial committee.

More material from the Habeas Corpus application can be found from the Index above
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1. That the victim Salauddin Ahmed was a brilliant student. He has studied in the University of Dhaka with subject of law. He served in administration (Magistrate) …. He was former APS of former Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia in the period of 1991 to 1996. He is a former elected MP of Coxs Bazaar-1. He was a state minister in the period of 2001 to 2--6. He is now Joint Secretary of BNP and he is a very popular leader.

2. That the guard of the house is a eye witness of the occurrence from where the pick up of the victim Salauddin Ahmed [took place], which is published in Daily 'Prothom Alo' newspaper on 13.03.2015. Desh TV also take a interview of the guard. 

3. The police of Uttara Police Station picked up the guard of the house, from where Salauddin Ahmed was picked up by the law enforcing agencies, who is eye-witness of the occurrence and tortured him so he will not say or disclose that the law enforcing agencies picked up the victim Salauddin Ahmed. 

4. That is is stated that the petitioner's husband is picked up by the law enforcing agency on 10.03.2015 without any connection with criminal case and without any warrant of arrest of competent couts. The said news has been published in the different newspaper the following days. 

5. That the personal assistant of the victim Salauddin Ahmed, namely Osman Goni, driver Shafique and Khokon were arrested from their respective house on 07.03.2015 but police forwarded them before the Magistrate on 10.03.2015. The law enforcing agencies knowing information from them picked up Salauddin Ahmed on 10.03.2015 at about 10.30, the owner of the house from where Salauddin Ahmed  picked up said over mobile to the petitioner that the law enforcing agencies members picked up Salauddin Ahmed on 10.03.2015 at about 10.30 PM and as such it is needed to direct upon the opposite parties to form a high power judicial inquiry body headed by a retired justice for finding our/produce the petitioner's husband Salah Uddin Ahmed before the court to be dealt with according to law.

Wherefore it is most humbly prayed that your Lordships may graciously be pleased: 

A: To issue a further Rule calling upon the opposite parties to show cause as to why the opposite parties should not be directed to form a high powered judicial body headed by a retired justice for finding out and under what circumstances the petitioner's husband Salah Uddin was abducted and who was responsible for abducting him and to submit the report before this Hon'ble court for taking appropriate action/step in the matter to be dealt with according to law 

B. Pending hearing of the further rule, your Lordships further be pleased to direct upon the opposite parties to form a high power judicial inquiry body headed by a retired Justice for finding out and under what circumstances the petitioner's husband Salah Uddin Ahmed was abducted and who are responsible for abducting him and to submit the report before this Hon'ble Court for taking appropriate action/step in the matter to be dealt with according to law 

C. Upon perusal and cause shown, if any, and after hearing both the parties make the resul absolute 

D. and/or pass such other or further order or orders as to your lordship may seem fit and proper.

Salah Uddin habeas writ - response to government

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This is the reply to the High Court by the lawyers to the acting for Hasina Ahmed to the response of the Attorney General concerning the alleged abduction by the state of Salah Uddin Ahmed, BNP leader, on 10 March, the subject of a writ of habeas corpus.

(Please note that some small grammatical corrections have been made to help with comprehension)
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1. That I [Mohammad Habibullah] am the Tadbirkar (applicant) of the case on behalf of the petitioner and well conversant with the fact and circumstances of the case and as such I am competent to swear this affidavit 

2. That the guard of the house is a eye witness of the occurrence from where the pick up of the victim Salauddin Ahmed [took place], which is published in Daily 'Prothom Alo' newspaper on 13.03.2015. Desh TV also take a interview of the guard. 

Copy of the 'Prothom Alo' is annexed 

Salah Uddin habeas writ: Government response

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This is the response from the government to the Habeas Corpus writ lodged by the the wife of Salah Uddin Ahmed, who was allegedly taken by law enforcement authorities from a house in Uttara on 10 March 2015. Annexes 2 and 2a can be found here. Annex 3 to 8 can be found here

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1. That I am serving as Additional Superintendent of Police, Bangladesh Police, Police Headquarters, Dhaka and authorities by the Opposite Party No 2, and tadbirkarak on behalf of opposition party 1, 3, 4, 5, and 7 and I am conversant with the facts and circumstances of the case and as such competent to swear this affidavit. 

2. That this opposite parties have gone through the petition upon which the instant rule has been issued and understood the contents thereof and I have been instructed to controvert the statement of the petition which are necessary for dispel of the Rule and the statement of the petition which are not specifically admitted hereinafter shall deemed to have been denied by this deponent. 

3. That the statement made in paragraph No1 of the petition to the effect that the petitioner's husband has been picked up by the law enforcing agencies on 10.03.2015 at about 10.15pm are false and those are vehemently denied by this deponent.

Salah Uddin habeas writ: Correspondence from law enforcement

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Here is the correspondence filed as annexes to the government's response to the High Court's order of 15 March relating to the alleged state abduction of BNP leader, Salah Uddin Ahmed. The order asked the respondents to 'show cause as to why they should not be directed to find out and bring up the husband of the petitioner, namely, Salauddin Ahmed before the court.' The other annexes can be found here. These documents were read out in court by the Attorney General.

Other documents relating to the habeas corpus writ can be found from the Index above
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Annex 3
Letter dated: 12/3/2015

Addressed to: Deputy/Additional Police Commissioner (of Ramna/ Tejgaon/ Lalabagh/ Mirpur/ Gulshan/ Uttara/ Motijeel/Wari/DB north/DB South/DB East/DB West)
Subject: Missing BNP leader Salauddin Ahmed.

Reference: Uttara West Thana, GD no 634. Date 11.3.2015, and GD no 687, date 12.3.2015

About the above mentioned issue, there was an article in Daily Manob Jobin on 12.3.2015, ‘Family Claims that arrest of Salaudduaddin, RAB police denies’ 

There was a GD filed in Uttara West Thana – GD 634 - and under this situation you are asked to find out missing BNP leader Salauddin Ahmed, and if someone illegally abducted him, take lawful action against them. 

Signed: Joyta Shilpi.
BP no 77081216208
Senior Assistant Police Commissioner (Legal Affairs) on behalf of the commissioner, DMP

Salah Uddin habeas writ - police general diaries

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These are unofficial translation of the two General Diaries that were submitted to the High Court as part of the government's response to the Habeas Corpus writ seeking the return of BNP leader Salah Uddin Ahmed. They were written by the officer in charge of Uttara West Police Station. They were read out in court during the proceedings.

Other documents relating to the habeas corpus writ can be found from the Index above
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GD No/634. Note related to missing BNP leader Salah Uddin Ahmed and officer going out for investigation, 11. 3. 2015

I the officer in charge, Md Rafiqul Islam, Uttara West thana is filing this diary stating that on 11.3.2015 at 10.45 pm, Hasina Ahmed, the wife of the BNP’s joint general secretary Mr Salauddin Ahmed, along with 20 to 25 journalists came to the police station and verbally alleged that her husband was abducted by plain clothes men who claimed to be people of the law enforcement on 10.3.2015, at around 9 to 10 pm, from Sector 3, Road 13b, House 49b, Uttara. After some time she talked with some unknown persons on the mobile phone and said that he was taken from the second floor of the said house. I would like to mention that for filing a GD she did not bring any written application with her. Whilst asked if she was present on the scene or could present someone who was present at the scene, she replied that she did not live in that house and also cannot present someone who was at the scene. At one point she said that someone from Dubai called her and informed her about this incident.

Salah Uddin habeas writ - supplementary affidavit from Saleh Uddin wife

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This is the supplementary affidavit to the habeas corpus writ, filed by the wife of Salah Uddin Ahmed, the BNP leader, who was allegedly picked up by law enforcement agencies on 10 March 2015.

Other documents relating to the habeas writ can be found in the Index above.
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1. That I [Md Habibullah] am the Tadbirkar [Applicant] of the case on behalf of the petitioner and well conversant with the facts and circumstances of the case and as such I am competent to swear this affidavit. 

2. That the personal assistant of victim Salah Uddin Ahmed namely Osman Goni, [and his] drivers Shafique and Khokon were arrested from their respective house on 07.03.2015 but police forwarded them before the magistrate on 10.03.2015 in Gulshan PS case no 25(02)2015 as suspected accused with a prayer for 10 (ten) days remand. After hearing, the learned magistrate allowed for a three days police remand. The police knowing information from them, having seriously tortured them, picked up Salah Uddin Ahmed on 10.03.2015 at 10.30. The owner of the house …. from where Salauddin Ahmed was picked up said over mobile to the petitioner that the law enforcing agency members picked up Salauddin Ahmed on 10.03.2015 at about 10.30. The guard of the said house  also stated that the law enforcing agencies members picked up Salauddin Ahmed on 10.03.2015 at about 10.30 which was published in 'Prothom Alo' and other media' 

Copies of the order and forwarding are annexed 

Salah Uddin habeas writ: ''Find out and bring up' to court

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This post provides details of the writ of 'Habeas Corpus' lodged in the High Court by the wife of Salah Uddin Ahmed, a  Joint-Vice President of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party,and the spokesperson of the party filed under section 491 of the Code of Criminal Procedure to the High Court in Bangladesh in Miscellaneous case no 9932. It also sets out the initial order.

The government response and other documents relating to the habeas corpus writ can be found in the Index above.
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Section 491(1) of the CrPC, titled 'Power to issue directions of the nature of a habeas corpus' states:

The High Court Division may, whenever it thinks fit, direct:-
(a) that a person within the limits of its appellate criminal jurisdiction be brought up before the Court to be dealt with according to law;
(b) that a person illegally or improperly detained in public or private custody with such limits be set at liberty; …..

The respondents in the case are:

(1) the government of Bangladesh represented by the Ministry of Home Affairs
(2) the inspector general of police
(3) the director general of RAB
(4) the additional inspector general of police, Special Branch
(5) the additional inspector general of police, CID
(6) the deputy commissioner
(7) The commissioner, Metropolitan of police
(8) Officer in Charge, police station, Uttara

The application of Salah Uddin's lawyers, which was argued in court on the 12 March, two days after he was allegedly taken by law enforcement agents from the house where he was in hiding, reads as follows: