The chief metropolitan magistrate court in Dhaka on Saturday placed model Meghna Alam鈥檚 friend Japan-Bangladesh joint venture company Kawaii Group managing director and chief executive officer Dewan Samir on a five-day remand in an extortion case filed by the police with the Vatara police station.
Vatara police produced Samir, 58, before the court seeking a 10-day remand for聽 him in police custody while the court granted remand for five days after hearing, said Dhaka Metropolitan public prosecutor Omar Faruq Faruqi.
鈥楢ccused Dewan Samir blackmailed several diplomats and rich people using girls after capturing photographs with them in several parties with the help of recruiting agency Sanjana International,鈥� Omar told 抖阴精品.
He said that Dewan Samir allegedly demanded $5 million from the Saudi Arabian ambassador to Bangladesh.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police detective branch officials said that they had taken Samir into custody for interrogation in a case filed with the Vatara police station.
Vatara police station officer-in-charge Mohammad Mazharul Islam, however, claimed that although the case was filed with his police station, he did not know anything about the case.
鈥楾he case is being managed by senior police officials,鈥� the OC added.
Dewan Samir鈥檚 friend model and Miss Bangladesh Foundation chairperson Meghna Alam, who was detained by the Dhaka Metropolitan Police鈥檚 detective branch on Wednesday afternoon, was placed on a 30-day detention under the Special Powers Act, 1974 on Thursday night over allegations of risking state security.
Police had initially denied Meghna鈥檚 detention for questioning for more than 24 hours, but on Thursday evening DB chief Rezaul Karim Mallik confirmed her detention without disclosing details.
The DMP in a statement on Friday said that Meghna Alam was taken into safe custody over allegations of disrupting state security and attempting to deteriorate inter-state relationship by spreading false information about important individuals and conspiring to harm the country economically.
The police claimed that she was taken into safe custody following legal procedures.
鈥楾he accusation of kidnapping Meghna Alam is not true. Nevertheless, she has the right to seek legal recourse,鈥� said the statement signed by DMP deputy commissioner for media and public relations Muhammad Talebur Rahman on Friday.
Asked how Meghna was risking state security, attempting to deteriorate inter-state relationship and conspiring to harm the country economically as alleged in the DMP statement, DMP joint commissioner for Crime Faruk Hasan said that he did not know anything about the case as it was being supervised by the detective branch.
DMP DB chief Rezaul Karim Mallik could not be reached for comments despite several attempts.
Ganatarntrik Odhikar Committee in a statement demanded the release of model Meghna Alam and scrapping of the Special Powers Act, 1974, said a press release.聽
On behalf of the committee, economist and a former Jahangirnagar University professor Anu Muhammad said that the Special Powers Act cannot exist in the post-mass uprising Bangladesh.
Rights group Amnesty International expressed deep concern about the use of the Special Powers Act for the arrest of model Meghna Alam, Amnesty said on social media platform X on Friday.
The draconian legislation, with vague provisions, has historically been used to arbitrarily detain people for long periods of time, without a charge and without judicial oversight, it said, adding that聽 these all constitute gross violations of due process safeguards and international human rights standards and best practices.
鈥榃e call on the authorities to either charge Meghna with an internationally recognisable crime or release her. They must also end the use of and repeal the Special Powers Act,鈥� said Amnesty.
Meghna went live on her verified Facebook account at about 5:00pm on Wednesday, where she shared that some people identifying themselves as law enforcers from the Vatara police station tried to break into her house without a search warrant.
Meanwhile, 38 lawyers, legal academics, and human rights activists in a joint statement on Saturday condemned the arbitrary and unlawful detention of Meghna Alam under the Special Powers Act, 1974.
鈥榃e are seriously alarmed by the broader implications of this action. The spirit of the July uprising 鈥� which aimed to build state institutions free from oppression 鈥� is undermined by such authoritarian actions,鈥� the statement said.聽
Under these circumstances, we urgently call on the authorities to release Meghna Alam immediately and unconditionally, to promptly investigate why she was detained and to take action against those responsible, and to compensate her for the violation of her fundamental rights.
The signatories included Supreme Court senior lawyers and lawyers Omar Faruq, Sara Hossain, Hamidul Mesbah, Jyotirmoy Barua, and Manzur Al Matin, musician and lawyer Farzana Wahid Shayan, Dhaka University law department associate professor Taslima Yasmin and North South University senior lecturer Saquib Rahman.
